Would you donate blood?

paulksnn

It's either here or the fitness forums, so here goes.

I'm a semi-regular blood donor, but there hasn't been a clinic this year. Theres one next week though.
Swimming semi-regularly, I haven't found that donating affects my swimming, but with training for a triathlon, I'm doing an awful lot more training.

I know the blood gets replaced in a day or two, but would my training suffer if I donated?
Anyone have any experiences?

hunnymonster

my understanding is that the blood volume (plasma?) get's replaced quickly but the quality takes longer. Hense you can only donate every 90 days. Paulsnn, This is a question I have debated and redebated with myself many times over last couple of years. Before I took up sport (2004). I donated every 90 days on the dot. Even when I started running, I used to donate regularly but I found it could take up to a month to recover from a donation in terms of performance so I stopped. I feel very selfish about it though and regularly drag my couch potato mates to the clinics to ease my own guilt.

paulksnn

When I used to live near the constant clinics(Dublin and Cork) I would go every 3 months - they only seem to come around here every 6 months.
Like you I think I'll have to suspend the blood donations. After all - I won't be doing triathlons forever. Makes me a bit sad though.

Slogger Jogger

Hi,

I'm training for the Conn marathon and occasionally donate platelets. I normally have a low enough blood count but donated 2 weeks ago and found it was high despite a long slow run the previous day and lots of miles under the belt the previous week. The donation of platelets takes nothing from you really and I was running later on that day...

Regards,

SJ

LDB

I had to stop donating also.
For a couple of weeks after donating I found I had just no energy to run more than 3 miles or so.
I tried to find out about ways to boost recovery time but didn't come up with anything i'm afraid!