How many of you donate blood? If you do, how long do you feel a noticeable impact on your training and racing?
Would you do it within two weeks of a race? Three? Never?
I have donated quite a bit of blood over the years. It’s such a simple thing that can make such a massive difference in somebody else’s life, but over the last couple years, as I have become more serious about training and racing, I’ve found that I haven’t because I’ve noticed a big difference in my endurance for at least a week or two after donating.
I find the same thing as the previous poster - quite an impact for a couple days, and noticeable for a few weeks. I recall googling this and reading somewhere it negatively affected your VO2 Max for up to a month. No idea if its true, or where I read it, but based on my own experience, I tend to believe it.
I donate every 2 months, but took a year off from blood donation in the run up to my failed KQ attempt this year. 12 months of was probably excessive. For long course triathletes given how much of our time is spent in the lower zones, blood donation probably doesn’t negatively impact your training too much. During the training for my first couple ironman I’d work out pre-donation, then take the rest of the day off post donation, and back at it the next day.
The next time I’m super concerned about the outcome of an A race, I’d probably stop donating blood for 4-6 months before hand. But like you said, it makes too much of a positive impact on the lives of others to not to do it.
And if I’m being honest, I really look forward to the post-donation Oreos, since we don’t ever have cookies at our house.
I have to agree with all the above posters. I donate blood during the off season but once I’m ramping up real training I stop donating. I’ve found in the past that I truly notice the difference for up to two weeks and if I truly look deeply at my data that it’s probably about 3-4 weeks of impact (obviously that’s on the ‘extreme’ side of things). If I was just ‘racing’ tris as a way to keep myself moving or fit I would keep donating blood all year but since I’m fairly competitive I stop giving during ‘race’ season. I have to admit almost feeling guilty or selfish but I figure giving for almost half a year is more than most do so at least I’m helping…
Consider platelet donation (ask your preferred donation place). You get your red cells back, your body typically recovers more quickly from the donation, the more platelets you have, the less whole blood requires processing, and if you have not been exposed to certain diseases (particularly Cytomegalovirus) you can give your platelets to babies, which is a nice feeling.
I just donated last week, exactly 1 month before my upcoming “A” race (70.3). I took 2 days off for weekend away with family, then did TR White Cap (2:47 ride @ 80-85% FTP) on Sunday. Felt a bit tougher than normal but may have been the effects of beers and margaritas the night before as much as the donation. Next day I ran 10 miles felt good and pace was as I expected. I think 1 week post donation I’m feeling pretty much back to normal, but I’m firmly MOP…this article states impact is more severe the more highly trained / fit you are.
I agree donating blood is so valuable a service we should do it if we can… but to be honest if I had thought it out more I would’ve pushed it another month until after the 70.3… I hadn’t donated in a while and had been wanting to… and the offer of a $5 dunkin donuts gift card was too much incentive to turn down
Donating blood is the exact opposite of doping. It’ll deplete you anywhere from a couple days to a couple months. I wouldn’t do it if racing performance was a goal of mine.
