Blood Donation

Have you donated blood before?  If so, how long does it usually take you before you feel completely recovered?

Personally, I wouldn't donate.  But, the day I donate, I'm usually too exhausted to do anything.  And, it usually takes about 3 days before I feel back to normal.  I know for other people it has less of an effect.  The blood donation people have always told me not to exercise that day. 

Depends on what you mean by "safe".  I know that's a very vague answer.  It's entirely safe to do if you're talking about your well-being.  However, there is a significant chance that it will negatively affect your performance in your race.

How's that for dodging a yes or no answer?

How much do you care about the race? Do you care if you do poorly or are you happy just to finish no matter how slow and painful?

Even if you are a veteran donar I would wait until after your race, if whole blood.  If you do platelets then the recovery time is much less, so a Sprint 4 days away would be fine with me. I now wait 24 hours after donating before I run, swimming (low intensity) I am fine with the same day.

I have been a blood drive coordinator for my company for 10 years.  A couple of minor clarifications.  The average adult has 10-12 pints of blood and for most people the fluids are replaced within 24 hours.  The Red Cross actually recommends no strenous physical activity for 5 hours after donating.  I normally feel fine and go back to my regular training schedule the day after I donate.  That being said, if someone is even asking the question and is not a regular donor, why not just hold off and donate afterwards?  There are drives every day in a variety of locations (churches, recreation centers, schools, business) in addition to the Red Cross centers so it should be easy to find a place to donate.  One more thing...people can donate whole blood every 56 days, apherisis (platelets only) requires only a three day wait and "double reds" require 112 days.

Probably too much information but this is a cause near and dear to my heart!

I donated double red blood cells Thursday, felt fine afterwards, did a tougher than usual spin class the next day, and had two days of tougher than usual runs.  All three seemed fine to start, later on seemed to stress my body more (not a tough mental effort),with lotsa sweat and too warm.  My HR went up later in the workouts and tended to stay up at a normal pace, maybe 5-8 bpm more than usual.  

I tried to identify the reason for feeling this way - the heat, sleep stress, and really had to admit that it was likely the double RBC donation. 

I don't care, since I don't have a race soon, and am sure I'll feel back to normal tomorrow or the next day.  The double red blood cell donation is good for a number of reasons:

1. You only go 1/2 as often (once every 16 weeks)
2. The needle is smaller - I barely even feel it
3. Recipients get exposed to less donors if they can get a double dose from one
4. They give me more t-shirts

Also, I don't know if the research has proven, but I remember medical hypotheses being knocked about that blood donation could be good for men's cardio health, perhaps by lowering their iron count.  Any doctors out there want to comment on this last one? 

Yep.  In general men have too much iron, and it's been linked to oxidative stress that can result in worsening coronary artery disease.