Dbark98

Today I had blood work done at the doctor and they took approximately a cup of blood. I was planning on doing hill repeats tomorrow morning and was wondering if it would bad if I did the intense workout since I just had blood drawn. The blood was taken around 10:30 this morning and I was planning to start the workout around 6am. I weight about 135

Thanks!

bikepro

I'm pretty sure your body will let you know if there are problems. If you start feeling light-headed or weak during the ride, I'd stop. However, if you're not riding until the next day, your should be fully recovered.

bbattle

I've ridden a flat ride the day after donating blood. I didn't go crazy and had no problems.

txags92

You may or may not feel the effects. You may simply not be able to go as hard as you planned. Or maybe you will notice no difference at all. As was said, I would just watch for dizziness or feeling light headed, and back off if you feel that way. May sure to hydrate well and I doubt you will have any significant problems.

pdedes

hammer away.

OldTryGuy

+1

I biked 12 miles to donate blood, did so, then biked the 12 miles back home. As mentioned, if you feel strange, back off.

floridamtb

Same here, i noticed a little bit of effect but it was south Florida in August

Nachoman

I've got an appointment to donate blood Friday at 2:00 p.m. and then plans for a big ride on Saturday morning.
I never even gave this issue a second thought . . . until now . . .

Bunyanderman

I gave blood then went on an intense 30+ mile ride, no problems except faster fatigue and less overall power.

Wanderer

A big glass of water, or orange juice, and you are good to go.....................

zvez

A few tubes of blood aren't going to be missed at all. I doubt they took more than 100-150cc, literally a drop in the bucket of your blood supply. You probably have 5 liters of blood inyour body.

johnlp37

I usually feel a bit weaker for a day or two after donating a pint of blood. It has never stopped me from working out the next day. I've donated over five gallons. Giving less blood than that, I wouldn't be too concerned. Prehydrate. You should be fine.

Willbird

The blood volume gets replaced pretty quickly, the red cells take a few weeks to get replaced, related to donating a pint not a few tubes for lab work. After donating be sure to eat plenty of iron in natural forms preferred, called heme iron, meat and eggs are two sources. Vegans might have a tougher time, there are a lot of sourced but you need to help it along a little the way it sounds by eating other stuff with it (acidic foods maybe?)

StanSeven

There's no way they took a cup of blood for tests. Think back at the vial or vials if more thn one and imagine that next to a cup of coffee.

GravelMN

I used to donate blood all the time, had to stop for a couple of years due to medications, just started giving again this month. I've donated blood and gone on recovery rides or B group rides within a few hours with no ill effects other than maybe slight fatigue. In the past there were a couple of times that I gave double RBCs and that had a more pronounced effect. I was tired for a couple of days and my performance was off for a couple of weeks. I now only give single units of whole blood.

OldTryGuy

Plant based iron is better metabolized when accompanied with vitamin C intake. Do not drink milk while eating. I have been anemic for ages and just today found that a 4oz. serving of ground buffalo provides 40% of daily iron. My new food friend.

Willbird

Yea there is a Bison place in Fremont, IN. Make sure it is grass fed for sure. Lots of Bison burgers on sit down food places menu must be loaded with beef tallow because the calorie score is higher than beef. It is not super easy to cook bison burgers, I usually bake them. Been awile since I had any :-). Blackstrap molasses has some iron in it. 100g of pumpkin seeds gives you 83% RDA but as a non heme source....lots of other good minerals in them too though. Best to buy raw ones and roast at 160f, the pre roasted ones are actually fried at high temp in canola oil, lower temp is healthier from what I read.

bt

are you, by chance going to put the blood back in before your ride??

Hypno Toad

I was wondering about this, yesterday I donated double red for the first time. I'm planning a short ride today (mostly because the icy road conditions are so bad), but I'll be interested to see how I recover from the double red.

caloso

You will definitely see an effect with a double rbc donation.

WMcCready

Used to donate while stationed in Japan, 1968 . For donations they used to give us chits for free drinks at the service club. We used them immediately, and had a great day.

floridamtb

+1

I donate kinda regularly and I usually do it on a Sunday when I'm going to take a rest day on Monday or active recovery. Listen to your body. I tried to go a little harder once a few years ago and my body quickly said no so I sat up and did an easy spin back. Drink lots of liquids!

kc0bbq

The donation clinic I use calls this "two for one".

It takes a month to recover fully from donating a pint of blood in a normal whole blood donation. It's about a 12% hit to VO2max initially and about 7% after the first week. The affect on lower power efforts is less, but you go anaerobic earlier. My numbers (using a power meter) followed along with those numbers, which I got from some medical article on the internet somewhere.

Not sure how much more of an impact a double red donation would be, I doubt it's double the power hit, but it probably does double the recovery time. We only produce so many stem cells.

I switched over to platelet donations. It takes a lot longer (I have a pretty high platelet count and it takes me a little less than an hour and a half). They say to assume two hours the first time. You only lose a little blood (100mL, I think, for all the tests), and there is even more need for platelets than whole blood (don't think they can be stored long). Until we figured out a few tricks I used to clot needles closed all the time so they asked to do a platelet count and if I'd rather do that. As a bonus the performance hit is pretty small compared to a whole blood donation.

If you've got a high enough platelet count to qualify I recommend doing it at least once. The apherisis machine for that seems even more mad science-y than the one for double red donations.

Hypno Toad

Great info, thank you!

motorthings

i used to donate whole blood, and wondered what was up with the folks attached to the apheresis machines...then a relative got cancer (multiple myeloma) and needed platelets, and I heard he was unable to get them as the hospital was completely out of platelets. This meant all cancer patients in need of platelets were just waiting for donations.

I was down there the next day, and donated as often as possible ever since. Getting treated like a hero, getting all the juice and cookies i want, and catching up on movies makes it a rewarding way to spend time, but doing a fast group ride the next day was always a sure way to get shelled. 3-4 days recovery and things were back to close to normal.

Either way, props to all of you for giving blood and platelets, and if you haven't tried either, give it a shot!