Recovering from blood donation

  • Good question and one that I am not equipped to answer properly.

  • But a guess (formed from my years of mixing donations and training) says that there probably isn’t. For me at least, I just suffer an overall performance drop. I do build back up, but I suspect that has more to do with the replenishment in my body that happens naturally as a reaction to the loss of blood. I don’t think it is because I continue training in a deficient state, but who knows?

In the past I was always donating full blood and felt lost of form after that.
Recently I’ve donated blood cells (thromboytes), and it’s great because you’re not loosing red cells which transport oxygen. I’ve felt no loss in form after that, I even made two KOMs on that day. You can also donate plasm and it has no affect on form.

In future I’ll be donating only blood cells or plasm.

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Yes, there are a variety of options for blood donations. Whole, reds, platelets, plasma and likely more.

The choice depends on several variables that will depend on the person donating and the intended benefit from the donation for them and the recipient(s). Any donation site will be able to cover the basics and questions about them to help choose.

I’m going for the first time on Tuesday after witnessing the good blood donations can do for people close to me. Today I was reading about the lower blood volume and it’s effect on training which can last for weeks afterwards.

I thought I’d start the thread so people can share experiences and raise awareness of how good giving blood can do, and being the Trainerroad forum, how it impacts athletic performance and to what extent. Recovery tips, dos and donts welcome.
I haven’t caught up with the podcast for a few weeks with changes in my personal circumstances but maybe a deep dive for @chad to sink his teeth into

There is already a pretty good thread on that here:

From what I’ve read and a bit from experience - from training / recovery perspective it’s much better to donate plasma / platelets as it’s actually more usefull (less people donating it - it’s also significantly much longer as compared to blood donation) and there is no downside from training perspective.

That’s what I’m doing on reguler basis and I didn’t notice any impact on my training (except being a bit weaker the day when I give it of course).

I believe there are already a few existing threads about blood donation. Probably dormant by now, just search for them. I think I started one when I joined TR because it was at the same I donated.

:+1:

Been a regular on here for ages and never saw it, probably should have ran a quick search :man_facepalming:

Very selfless act. Good for you

Blood donation related info at the latter part of this episode.

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I feel very reticent to give blood now as the next week or so means my FTP is destroyed, and i can’t comply to my training.

Maybe i’ll try and see how easy it would be to donate plasma. We have blood donation clinics coming in to my work usually so it’s easy that way but it’s also whole blood they take, not plasma.

Plasma and Platelet donations have less impact on a rider than whole blood donations.

I do whole blood donations for my HH management, and work the scheduling into my training plan. I set my donation for the afternoon on Sunday, after my long ride workout. This also happens at the end of a “Work” week and prior to my “Recovery” week. I manually drop my FTP 6% after the donation and before my next workout.

I also set my donations a minimum of 8 weeks out from any event that I hope to do well at. I like 12 weeks if I can set it that way. At my current schedule (2 donations per year) it’s not too tough to set a schedule. But I recognize the difficulty and the ego hit that comes with the related power loss.

As I said above, knowing the benefit shared from it is the one thing I use to help me swallow that loss.

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Bump for a new idea to help those of us who donate. I just realized that setting up TR seasons from the day after a blood donation to the next one is possibly worthwhile. I have had great progress from my donation last October up to the one a week ago. I went thru my usual downturn and acceptance of dropping FTP by 6% after the donation.

Then recognizing I’m unlikely to hit any new power PR’s for 2-6 weeks lead me to making separate seasons for each “donation to donation gap”. This gives me a clean slate after each one and may help keep me motivated to regain my power in the coming weeks. Mental manipulation to a point, but seeing those PR’s is motivating to me and maybe others.

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Additional bump, if you’re in the US (and likely more areas as well) there are shortages popping up as people have stopped donating.

With all the events getting cancelled it’s a good time to consider donating, you can take the fitness hit for a couple weeks. I’m probably making the trip later this week.

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Good call! I was thinking the same thing.

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Having just scrubbed my season out to at least the end of June, i‘m typing this having just completed a platelet donation (first since this time last year, cos it wrecks my racing)

If you can, go and donate :slight_smile:

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Could you elaborate? I’ve chosen to do a platelet donation instead of the full blood. I had low hemoglobin when I was running and it’s still not too high at 148. The recovery time from full blood is 2 months while from a platelet donation it should be a couple of days (and shouldn’t hamper the training).

I am scheduled for a platelet donation for the next week for the first time!

I noticed early last year (when just getting to grips with TR) that I struggled with hitting the Saturday Work Outs (generally Over and Unders) following donating on a Friday afternoon. I then bailed on a 50m TT because i just ‘wasn’t there’ physically (on a course I’d done a 12hour TT on the year prior).

The only constant was the platelet donation prior, so i knocked donations off the calendar for a bit, but none I have no races, i don’t have excuse, so I’m back donating.

You may recover quicker, you may not. I’d suggest though that if you have no races in the calendar, now is as good a time as any to experiment with the after effects…

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Thanks for the warning, I’ll keep that in mind and schedule some easy riding afterwards.

I did Mary Austin -3 today affter my platelet donation yesterday, and actually managed quite well.

Struggled a bit in interval 3 (of 4), and had to dig deep to get through 4/4.

So maybe just stick with your plan, and see what happens.

There’s no shame in taking a back pedal or knocking the intensity down a bit for a minute or two…

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Went on Thursday (the platelet donation) for the first time. Everything went smooth, nurses were nice to the first-timer, had two girls for company the whole time (one received a medal for 20th donation). Felt alright and went for an easy 2 hour ride that afternoon. Three hours tempo ride the day after and felt strong. Didn’t feel any ill effects compared to the full blood donation.

The only downside was I had to walk there and back (40 mins each way) and my knee hurt really bad. Probably from all the sitting in the isolation :slight_smile: