I was reading a purported IM convo between Frankie Andreu and some other US bike racer from the whole SAC-Armstrong thing, and they said Christophe Moreau had around a 39% and Ullrich after 2000 around 42%, which seems really low, even without drugs. I had my values checked when I had some routine bloodwork a few years ago and was at 45% and I was not in great shape at the time… is that a normal number???
There’s a wide range of normal values from about 38 to 50 even not accounting for variations in individuals over time. A recent world champion xc mtb rider published his values and his level was about 41-43 most of the time.
If you look at Ivan Basso’s published data, it includes a cross section of blood profiles and shows where the general population lies over different values.
When I had my blood work done I was 40%. They said that was in the normal range.
jaretj
45% is normal for someone out of shape. When an endurance athlete gets fitter, it goes down, not up, contrary to popular belief.
I have had CBCs (Complete Blood Counts) a few times over the last couple years. I am 37-38 every time. So borderline anemic but I race ok. Have had doc prescribed iron supps take my iron levels up pretty high with zero rise in my HCT or hemoglobin. 37 or so is just where my body gravitates.