Make sure you remain hydrated and you should be fine. You may or may not notice an effect on performance. Some studies indicate no affect on sub-maximal performance but maybe avoid any maximal exercise for a week or two.

---

Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

You'll likely be off for about two weeks. I'm pretty sure they say it takes 28 days to replace your blood cells taken.
Might want to take an extra rest day the day after donation. Some slight concern about opening the wound in the vein (pretty good gauge needle) and you'll also feel pretty crappy.
Typically I'll fell off or just not have it working out after two days to about two weeks. Usually after the workout I'll remember that I recently gave blood.

Just want to clarify, by off I don't mean take days off - I mean that you'll feel "off"

In my experience, the more often you donate blood, the less often it will leave you feeling meh afterwards. I guess you just get used to it. That being said, you will be at a reduced level while your body rebuilds the red blood cells. Ideally you would do this in a down period of training (base training, after a major race etc...) when you know you don't have to be at 100%.

If you don't want to go through that rebuild but still want to donate, you could consider plasma or platelets. This system gives back the red blood cells, is still highly valuable for hospitals, and means you recover easily within 24 hours. The down side is technically it is considered blood doping. It is what I do, and frankly I don't care about WADA when it comes to plasma donation. I do it it every 3 weeks because I have a rare blood type and people need my plasma. I once did platelets weekly for a year for a lukemia patient I was type matched to. I don't think I somehow became faster doping that, but it didn't hurt my training.

---

Ian

"Fatigued" is the right description, but it's not the overtraining fatigue that we all hit occasionally. Kinda feels the same. Your body simply won't be firing on all cylinders. Walking around day-to-day, your brain will forget you're low on resources. You won't remember about the donation until you're trying to figure out why the morning's ride just didn't pop.

Recovery only takes a week or two*, and you can keep working out the whole time. I tell myself that training on thinned blood actually benefits bc it forces the body to be even more efficient. Total BS, but it sounds good.

---

I could while away the hours
Conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain

Yeah....I used to think the same thing too. But I went too deep (by accident*) on a 4+ hour ride a few days after giving blood, and it took me two months to recover.

Since then I've been much more judicious about donating blood. I have done platelets/plasma though, with no ill effect.

*planned on 35 miles, but it was a nice day and my riding buddies got carried away, and we doubled it. And I didn't stay hydrated. I've never felt so bad for so long.

Thanks for all of the insight here. I think I am going to explore the platelet/ plasma route for now, and will donate blood in the fall when I am easing my way into the 'off-season'

Donate platelets! I do this every two weeks. Cancer patients really need this product and you get to keep all of your red cells. Yes, it takes 2 hours or so, but that's what ripping your DVD's to MP4 files on your laptop is for, especially the ones you can't watch with the family (Deadpool, etc).

I say save a life. I say give blood. I say let your body enjoy the downshift for a day or two then get over it. Mentally I mean. You're going to be tired in a race...use it as race prep for your mental training.

Eat right and drink lots of water and you'll be fine. And stronger for it.

Go ahead, unless you have a race you want to do well in, in the near future like a month or so. Probably be fine exercising but you won't have as many rbc so just expect to be slower