Forums >General Running>Running after blood donation?
Member, Tangerine Meat Gloss Running Team
I'm surprised none of you mentioned donating certain products from your blood. I regularly donate plateletes, and have never felt flat, tired, or had to miss a run. In fact, it's the only type of donation I give. The downside to donating specific blood products is it takes much longer. Your blood is drawn into a machine with a centrifuge. The blood is "spun" which separates the individual products, then what's not needed is returned to you. Yep, returned through the same needle! They do give you some fluids in addition to your own blood back. This whole process takes up to 2 hours, where as before I gave plateletes, I could bleed out a pint or two of whole blood AND be sucking down a half dozen cookies in 25 minutes. I'm not an expert in how all of this works, but I do know how I feel afterwards, which is the same as when I arrived. Another difference in the two is how quickly one can donate again. The period between donations of whole blood is 8 weeks. The period with plateletes is 3 days! Yea, this isn't for the casual donor! One of the reasons I give is because not everyone can.
I will mention that I did a double donation of red blood cells last week and every run since has been a miserable experience. I went back in my training log and realized the times I have been most fatigued have come when I do a donation like this. http://www.bloodcenters.org/donating/double_redcells.htm I did some reading up, and it seems it will take 3 weeks before the red blood cells get back to "normal" level. I want my red blood cells back, I have a Marathon coming up.. ugh. I shoulda waited til after.
<www.runningahead.com/groups/veggies/
A Saucy Wench
I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets
"When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7
uncontrollable
peace