Long-time regular (every eight weeks) blood donor here. I’ve noticed some fatigue for up to a week after a donation. This is primarily driven by how I’ve prepared prior to the donation (extra fluids the day before and prior to donation) and post-donation recovery (extra food/fluids/rest).
For example, I’m scheduled to donate blood tomorrow at noon. Today I’ll be sure to drink more fluids than usual. Tomorrow morning I’ll have a nice breakfast sandwich (sausage/egg/goat cheese on whole-grain toast) and a nice coffee from the local place and drink extra water, too. (I fully recognize that the coffee is a diuretic. I’m a fast metabolizer of caffeine and only rarely drink coffee, so this is a little “treat” to myself for donating blood.)
I’ll walk the four blocks to the donation center and donate as usual, consuming a mandatory snack and a bottle of water in the recovery room, then walk back to my car. I’ll probably grab a burger, fries and a soda (gasp!!) on the way home as this has become a somewhat traditional lunch after 20yrs of regular donations. I’ll take it easy the rest of the day and continue to drink plenty of fluids. I’ll do a light spin the next morning and usually within a couple of days feel back to normal.
So, now that we have estimated FTP, I feel a bit differently about donating blood. I will plan to donate at beginning of recovery week and then use the estimate rather than a flawed ramp test in the next block. Still might have to back off the intensity for a while, and this will be worse in build than for base.
I had been hoping to do the ramp to verify the estimate, but Red Cross seems quite desperate at the moment.
I have switched from donating full blood to platelets only as my hemoglobin was constantly low and it had an effect on my training. However, platelets donation requires three needles - one for tests and two for the centrifuge. My veins are apparently fragile and one particularly stubborn blows nearly every time. If I say something upfront I can see the shaking hand even if they choose another vein. Which usually results in suboptimal needling and another blow up. If I don’t say anything they will always chose the problematic vein and it usually blows up. Even with the blown vein after first needling on Friday the nurse (different one) managed to do the other two just fine but wasn’t happy she had her job more difficult.
I am not that much interested in strategy of choosing veins or communicating the problem to the nurses. But is there anything I can do to improve the vein wall structure. I cycle a lot hence exercising more is not an option (not for my partner anyway ). I can’t get any younger either (39). But are there any nutrients that might help?
Does anyone have any experience of donating stem cells and the impact on performance?
Been training since last September for a 7 day XC event which is going to be really tough but I have just been contacted to say I am a match and potentially would be picked for donating stem cells for someone undergoing a bone marrow transplant.
I may be able to pick when to donate but if the recipient needs the transplant sooner then I will maybe just have to get on with it and live with the concequences.
Just curious if anyone else has experience of this?
I recently decided to join the blood donation gang - I’m now 49, no longer race and only keep TR to maintain fitness so I’m not that fussed about donating causing a drop in fitness.
With all the AI tech now available though I wonder if it’s time for TR to start giving us the option to record a blood donation and then use the workout data post this to start measuring and predicting the effect on athletes. Once the data exists, marking a day in the calendar as donation day could potentially automatically provide an updated AI FTP detection and amend workout calendar to suit.
I don’t have the luxury to always schedule a donation for a rest week, I have to fit them in as offered, and on my first donation experience I take more than a week to recover.
Welcome to the donation world and thanks for all those you help along the way.
Would be nice to have an overall “I need a decrease for a bit…” type of annotation vs the pure Sickness or Injury ones that end up with a total removal of workouts on the days those span. I use the Alternates if needed, but that must be done each time and can span a week or more for me with donation recovery.
I happened to have some of my roughest weeks related to Adaptive Training, AIFTPD and my blood donation earlier this year. Had some undesired results that hinged on a choice I made to decline an AIFTPD increase that was offered in tandem with my recovery week and donation. I should have accepted the AIFTPD increase which would have lowered my Progression Levels (a good thing in light of the blood donation in particular), and then dropped my FTP manually to what I know I lose based on prior experience.
Anyway, this can get a bit messy when dealing with TR & donations as a bit more complicated than prior to AT, so there is some definite attention and hand-holding needed to avoid some of the issues I hit this season.
(For reference, I donate every 8 weeks and I have no plans to stop. I time my donations to be immediately after my A Events)
I have started annotating my training plan with week long ‘notes’ following a blood donation.
The donation day is annotated as an illness.
The week long notes give a percentage and say ‘Post Blood Donation’.
I do 92% for the first week and turn it up 2% per week. That reminds me where to set the workout % for my HIIT days.
If my RPE drops to medium, I turn it up 2% for the next workout. If my RPE is very hard, I turn it back down.
I also try to move my recovery week to the post-donation week.
This is a very manual process, but seems to maximize my post-donation training gains and workout success. I’d love it if the AI could do those adjustments for me given a donation date and my last RPE for a HIIT session. To make it more broadly useful, AI could do it for any illness using the HIIT session RPE’s to adjust.
). I can’t get any younger either (39). But are there any nutrients that might help?