Giving blood during training

[Brice]

Not sure this really belongs in the injury section but here goes.  At the school I teach at last week they had a blood drive.  To help meet the quota our school set I decided to donate a double red donation.  After I was done I asked the lady why more people don't do this and her response was because it hinders fitness in people who do endurance exercises.  While I am glad I could help out others in my community by donating I am a little bummed they didn't have some type of disclaimer up front about this.  Any how, this was a week and a half ago and I am still feeling the affects.  today was my longest run since then and I felt horrible.  I have also had to drag myself through some , what should be easy 4 milers.  Has anyone experienced this before?  Is there anything I can do to speed up the recovery? and how long should I expect to feel weak?  Basically I feel like my breathing is all off and my legs are in cement.  Recovery seems to be taking a little longer too.  Thanks for the advise.

[Brice]

Also is there anything I should worry about...ie, being more prone to injuries during this time or anything beneficial that can come from this situation?  I have read my body is acting like it would at a higher elevation, could this in the long term benefit my fitness (glass half full thinking )?

Thanks Again

[Chelsi]

I have the same problem every time I donate blood. It's the same as being anemic, which inhibits the body's ability to deliver oxygen, hence the feeling of running at a high altitude. I'm usually feeling back to "normal" about 2 weeks later, but I've never donated a double red before. I usually take an iron supplement for the first week or two afterward and try to give myself a break, understanding that I'm going to feel rotten for a bit. Good luck with the recovery!

[Andrea North]

Maybe these will help -

http://dorunning.blogspot.com/2006/06/donating-blood-affects-perrformance.html
http://www.over40runner.com/info/BloodDonationAndRacePerformance.html

"...Red blood cells (RBCs) contain hemoglobin, the main constituent that carries oxygen to the muscles during exercise. The typical male distance runner may have about 10-12 pints of blood, so donating one pint will result in an approximate 8%-10% decrease in total blood volume, RBCs, and hemoglobin concentration... Regeneration of the RBCs and hemoglobin concentration may take four to eight weeks, so aerobic endurance performance, which depends on adequate amounts of oxygen, may be impaired during the early stages of recovery from blood donation..."

[Tom]

Kim and I donated blood about 3 1/2 weeks ago and felt about how you describe it for a couple weeks.  Now after over 3 weeks we're just started to feel "normal" during a run.  I've also watched my ave HR during runs over this time and as I suspected the first week or 2 my HR was through the roof, like running a few 1000 feet higher altitude. I also got a cold during this time but recovered quickly.

So from our experience it does look like it takes a few weeks to fully recover. But definitely good to donate blood, so we just planned it during a period with no big races in the picture for a while.   I learned the hard way a few years back not to donate right before a race. I gave blood on a Thursday then ran a 10K Saturday that ended up being a complete disaster.

[Brice]

Thanks everyone...guess I'll just keep plugging away until this feels better. 

[Jake Krong]

Just to echo what has previously been said - if you re-hydrate well, your blood volume will be back to normal in 48 hours after giving blood. But it takes 3-4 weeks, assuming you are getting a good amount of iron in your diet, for hemoglobin to get back to normal. So basically your body isn't able to get oxygen to its muscles for about a month at the same level that you were used to. And that is what distance running is all about.

So like Tom said - best to donate during a period when you don't have any important races coming up in the next 6-8 weeks. If you are harder workouts during that period, you just have to be aware that your performance is going to be compromised by probably at least 10%. Recovery is probably also going to take longer.

Just be patient over the next couple weeks and it will come back - be careful not to run yourself into the ground while your body is trying to regenerate all the red blood cells.

[Rob Murphy]

This is an interesting conversation. I teach high school and coach and we are always having blood drives at school. I also have a wife who is an ICU nurse. So I'm always feeling pushed to give blood. I encourage my students to do it and I want to be a good example. Yet I know it will have a detrimental impact on my training and racing.

I've had parents of my runners get quite upset with me for telling them not to give blood during the season. "Potentially saving a life is more important than a 5k time isn't it..."

[Brice]

Rob, that is exactly where I am at.  Our school blood drives are a very positive thing for our school. I also coach and do try to lead by example when donating. I am also cytomegalovirus-negative (http://blog.inceptsaves.com/blog/2011/05/04/what-does-it-mean-to-have-cmv-negative-blood/), which I have been told to let the Red Cross people know when I donate since my blood can better be used for people with weakened immune systems (babies, cancer patients, etc..)  So I am sure I will continue to donate but am surprised at how this double red donation has affected my training...maybe just another sign that I am getting older      

[Nate Page]

Everyone is different, When I give blood I'm back to feeling normal when doing normal training runs the next day.  If I do race within 3 weeks or so I do notice that my times suffer.  Andrea's link covered the important articles regarding effects on performance.  Really maximal O2 consumption is the main thing affect which makes sense when you think about it.

I did have an article looking specifically at 5k times after donation but I lost it on a reformat.  I'll get another copy and post the results.  If I remember correctly, blood donation added like 2% onto 5k a week later.

In addition to just being a good thing for others, there's a good/logical hypothesis with some data to support it that regular blood donations in men can lower the risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease.  It's suspected that men store way too much iron and that it's a source of free radicals that cause oxidative stress in you CV system and that blood donation lowers your stores.  It's also suspected as part of the reason why men have higher rates of CV disease than women and why womens' rates rise post-menopause (their iron stores increase due to lack of their period).  So blood donation benefits all involved!   

[Jake Krong]

Just curious Nate if you remember off the top of your head - I assume that men storing too much iron would be more of a problem for normal men - not distance runners? Males running 100+ mile per week would probably have the same problems as menopausal women in terms of iron stores - or at least that's what I would think... that there is usually a bigger risk of being severely deficient as opposed to having to much.

[Nate Page]

My exercise physiology knowledge isn't great so excuse any missteps. Also excuse my lack of brevity, this is probably more than you wanted to know about blood and running.

Anemia in distance runners is kinda complicated partly because aerobic exercise increases plasma volume.  This effectively dilutes your blood which improves oxygen delivery.  This will lower to Hematocrit and Hemoglobin but you will not be truly anemic.  This is why a lot of athletes have Hct/Hb on the lower side of normal (unless you are a pro cyclist visiting certain Italian doctors)

To better look at Iron store you should look at ferritin (a protein that stores iron) and % saturation of transferrin (a protein that controls free iron in your blood).  If your ferritin or % saturation of transferrin is low, it's more indicative of lower iron.

SO, I looked for articles.  I did not find anything that set a relationship between miles and iron stores or ranges of iron levels found in high mileage male runners. It's much more focused on Females.

One report looked at 35 male runners and found that while hemoglobin was slightly lower (still w/in normal), iron stores were normal.  I could not get a copy of the paper so I don't know how much they were running.

Another report said 23 of 45 male runners were clinically iron deficient but again, I don't know how much they were running

The best report I could find here.  4 of 12 high mileage males were deficient, it is also noted that they had similar iron intake.  Of the 8 that were normal, they were well within the normal range, probably similar to that of someone that runs a lot less and higher than those typically associated with a pre-menopausal women (ferretin about 34-50 ug/l) .

So, I guess.  There is definitely a trend for high mileage runners to be low on iron, it's not an absolute and probably the best way to figure it out would be a simple blood test.  If you have any questions or if you want any more details or copies of the papers let me know.  Also, lastly, it's not a great idea of a male to take an iron pill (outside of a regular multi-vitamin) unless under doctor supervision because it can delay detection or mask of certain medical issues,

[Nate Page]

Got the paper looking at performance.  In study looking at 20 male runners (10 gave blood/10 did not).  2 days after blood donation there was an 8% decrease in VO2max and an increase in 3mile run time 1.5% (~16 seconds).  When retested at 4 weeks, the values were back to normal.

[Jake Krong]

Thanks for all that info Nate - good stuff!