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Running after giving blood... (Read 207 times)

    I bumped this thread because I did a double red blood donation on New Year's Eve. With a double red they pump out a couple of pints, put it through a centrifuge that spins out the red blood cells & put everything back in you but the red blood cells. I've done it before, but maybe I wasn't running as regularly. I noticed running up a steep hill on my regular route I am kind of breathless by the time I get to the top. I also notice I'm colder. Last night's 4 mile run at 15F felt colder than a 8 mile run I did a couple of weeks ago at 3F. I read a lot of books about climbing Mt Everest & some climbers try to climb without using bottled oxygen & they get extremely cold. When they plug into an oxygen tank the cold alleviates. In their case they lack oxygen to fuel their red blood cells, in my case I'm missing some red blood cells. I looked around online & can't find a definitive answer on how long it takes to replenish red blood cells. The Red Cross won't let you donate double red more that three times a year. General opinion seems to be recovery time is a couple of months & a regular donation about a month. Something to keep in mind if you're planning on donating around your race calendar.

    catwhoorg


    Labrat

      The life cycle of a red blood cell is about 100 days, so thats the upper limit. (could be out to ~120 days for some people)

       

      After lowering of the red cell count, the body will respond with increased production, but you will be looking at 1-2 months to fully recover from a double donation.

      After ~3-4 weeks you should be OK, except for very hard efforts.

      5K  20:23  (Vdot 48.7)   9/9/17

      10K  44:06  (Vdot 46.3)  3/11/17

      HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17

      FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18

       

      Tim_Easterday


        Yeah I made this mistake last year. Donated blood mid morning and ran a few miles that evening. I finished the run feeling fine. Later I was watching some TV in bed and got up to use the toilet. About 5 seconds after getting up I came very, very close to passing out and slammed into the wall. Still didn't feel quite right the next morning but later in the day I was OK again.


        Latent Runner

          Today was another Blood Drive day here at work; I learned from the day I started this thread, I ran a quick 8 *before* I gave blood.  Yeah, the Red Cross tech scolded me for running first, but she took my blood anyway and I feel many-many times better than when I ran after.

          Fat old man PRs:

          • 1-mile (point to point, gravity assist): 5:50
          • 2-mile: 13:49
          • 5K (gravity assist last mile): 21:31
          • 5-Mile: 37:24
          • 10K (first 10K of my Half Marathon): 48:16
          • 10-Mile (first 10 miles of my Half Marathon): 1:17:40
          • Half Marathon: 1:42:13
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