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Running after giving blood

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Saree1902
Saree1902 Posts: 611 Member
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Anyone a blood donor? How long does it take you to recover after a donation?

I gave blood Wednesday afternoon and ran home from work Thursday night and couldn't do more than 2 miles without feeling awful! I currently have a 10miler scheduled for tomorrow and am wondering if I'll have recovered enough by then...

Thanks in advance! :flowerforyou:

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  • SteveTries
    SteveTries Posts: 723 Member
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    I ran yesterday morning 10 hours after giving blood. Mistake. I knew performance would be inhibited so went slow but at 3kms I felt shot and I quit before I hit 5kms.

    I'm out for 10kms easy pace in a few hours, I'll let you know how that goes.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    I get tired just walking fast after giving blood! The blood service says to give it 24 hours, but I'm definitely not up to full capacity for 48 hours plus.

    I also gave blood on Wednesday, it seems think a lot of MFPeeps did, how odd. I'm waiting until tomorrow to run.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    Oh, and just in case, do your 10 miler in short loops in case you have to cut it short :flowerforyou:
  • Saree1902
    Saree1902 Posts: 611 Member
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    Oh, and just in case, do your 10 miler in short loops in case you have to cut it short :flowerforyou:

    Good thinking! Might try that!

    Thanks everyone!
  • SteveTries
    SteveTries Posts: 723 Member
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    Following from my earlier post above.....

    I went out for my 10k. This is c. 38 hours since donating.

    KM1 was great, my pace was easy and it felt fine. Every km after that was progressively tougher. My HR was higher than normal for the pace, by km4 it was at HM race pace and I was crawling. I felt tired. I stopped at 5km

    I should disclose that I'm currently running a 500-700 daily caloric deficit so my recovery from the donation may be impeded by that.

    I'd go with Berry's advice and loop close to home.
  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
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    I gave blood 3 weeks ago and it took me about 2 or 3 days to recover enough to where I wasn't felling drained after runs.. I am still not completely recovered yet, and my corpman (military) said it could take 2 months for some people.
  • Bounce2
    Bounce2 Posts: 138 Member
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    I donate regularly, actually I am scheduled to give on Monday :) You just reminded me to start my iron supp's again (I naturally have low iron that I can control with diet 80% of the time but supplement for 3-5 weeks around the date I donate ; doctors advice). The guys in the blood van know that I run (one of them is also a distance runner). Their advice to me was NO running at all for two days post donation and then build to long run; so 2 days no running, then short, medium or short tempo then back up to distance and regular training.

    Only once have I not followed this advice and I can tell you now I won't be doing it again.... It felt like it took me a full 6 weeks to get back to where I was pre-donation.
  • Saree1902
    Saree1902 Posts: 611 Member
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    Latest update:
    2 mile run 1 day after donation: utter disaster, felt like there was a heartbeat in my head.
    7 mile run 3 days after donation: got to 4 miles easily enough, then it got hard - just had no energy. Gave up on 10 miles and stopped at 7.
    Humidity and big hills probably aren't helping!!
    Will try 5 miles the day after tomorrow (5days post-donation)
  • LilRedRooster
    LilRedRooster Posts: 1,421 Member
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    I take extra iron for a few days before giving blood and then make sure to continue taking extra for at about a week after (with plenty of Vitamin C to help absorb it), but I give myself at LEAST two days to recover with NO running (I usually pick some cross-training thing like yoga or weight-training with lighter weights), and then gradually get back in (no longer runs for at least a week) because it just wipes me out.

    It can actually take some people up to a month or two to fully replenish that blood supply, so make sure that you are eating well BEFORE and AFTER donation, because nutrition is very important to help your body keep up with replenishing supply.
  • watermstry
    watermstry Posts: 41 Member
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    The facts: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21993024

    "Time to fatigue and peak heart rate were not significantly affected by blood donation. We conclude that blood donation causes a significant decrease in VO2peak for between 2 and 3 weeks. The practical application of this study is that aerobic power in people of average fitness will be decreased, up to 3 weeks after donating blood. Despite this, there is no effect of blood donation on performance as measured by time to fatigue..."

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