# Double blood donation stole my super power!



## KRob (Jan 13, 2004)

Or at least I’m blaming it on that. I ride at 6500-8500’ 5-6 days a week and I feel like that high altitude training has really given me a huge cardio fitness and climbing advantage.

However, this past Friday I let them talk me into doing a double at my usual 12 week blood donation. I figured I’d be fine hydration wise because they actually replace all your fluids plus some, but I failed to fully appreciate how much losing the extra red blood cells would affect me. It's like reverse blood doping. ha ha

I’ve felt out of breath, even a little light headed, and decidedly mortal on my two rides since then. Anyone tell me how long it will take to replace those RBCs?











Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

It's your imagination, probably got COVID


----------



## KRob (Jan 13, 2004)

Nurse Ben said:


> It's your imagination, probably got COVID


Ha ha. No COVID. So you don't think I lose enough RBCs in a double blood donation to make a noticeable effect on my high altitude climbing? I wondered about the science but it was obvious on both rides.


----------



## kirkB (Mar 21, 2005)

They claim up to 8 weeks, but for me it has typically been 2 weeks to feeling good again and 3 weeks to be back to full strength.


----------



## Cleared2land (Aug 31, 2012)

I have experienced the same side effects with Double Red donations. About a week is about normal for feeling back to normal for me.


----------



## KRob (Jan 13, 2004)

kirkB said:


> They claim up to 8 weeks, but for me it has typically been 2 weeks to feeling good again and 3 weeks to be back to full strength.





Cleared2land said:


> I have experienced the same side effects with Double Red donations. About a week is about normal for feeling back to normal for me.


Ok. That makes sense. I'll keep that in mind before I do that again. I love being able to help more people with one donation and other than it taking longer there were no side effects or weirdness during the donation like I remembered from the first time I did that several years ago. But if I have a big ride coming up, or a race, or mtb trip, I'll defer on the double next time.


----------



## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

KRob said:


> Or at least I’m blaming it on that. I ride at 6500-8500’ 5-6 days a week and I feel like that high altitude training has really given me a huge cardio fitness and climbing advantage.
> 
> However, this past Friday I let them talk me into doing a double at my usual 12 week blood donation. I figured I’d be fine hydration wise because they actually replace all your fluids plus some, but I failed to fully appreciate how much losing the extra red blood cells would affect me. It's like reverse blood doping. ha ha
> 
> I’ve felt out of breath, even a little light headed, and decidedly mortal on my two rides since then. Anyone tell me how long it will take to replace those RBCs?


Naw, pretty sure you need blood for that.


----------



## Cerberus75 (Oct 20, 2015)

There's a reason athletes take EPO, lol. If training in high altitude you can be back to normal in 4 weeks since higher altitude triggers your body to produce more EPO. Up to 8 weeks at sea level.


----------



## J_Bone (Dec 14, 2014)

KRob said:


> Or at least I’m blaming it on that. I ride at 6500-8500’ 5-6 days a week and I feel like that high altitude training has really given me a huge cardio fitness and climbing advantage.
> 
> However, this past Friday I let them talk me into doing a double at my usual 12 week blood donation. I figured I’d be fine hydration wise because they actually replace all your fluids plus some, but I failed to fully appreciate how much losing the extra red blood cells would affect me. It's like reverse blood doping. ha ha
> 
> ...


Yep, 2 weeks to feel normal and 4 weeks any training gains. 

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk


----------



## Lovespicyfood (Aug 4, 2012)

I'm a sea dweller and I did this once. Bonked on a long ride the following weekend and realized the reason why. No fun.


----------



## Kelly Parker (Mar 15, 2017)

KRob said:


> Or at least I’m blaming it on that. I ride at 6500-8500’ 5-6 days a week and I feel like that high altitude training has really given me a huge cardio fitness and climbing advantage.
> 
> However, this past Friday I let them talk me into doing a double at my usual 12 week blood donation. I figured I’d be fine hydration wise because they actually replace all your fluids plus some, but I failed to fully appreciate how much losing the extra red blood cells would affect me. It's like reverse blood doping. ha ha
> 
> ...


Same here I’ve been riding regularly since late 80’s. January I did the double (1st time doing this donation) and lost 35% compared ride loges in the last year. It took 4 months to recover and currently still not were I was before donating. Just my experience. Just Ride.


----------



## KRob (Jan 13, 2004)

Kelly Parker said:


> Same here I’ve been riding regularly since late 80’s. January I did the double (1st time doing this donation) and lost 35% compared ride loges in the last year. It took 4 months to recover and currently still not were I was before donating. Just my experience. Just Ride.


Yikes! Hope it doesn't take that long. I'm almost at two weeks post-donation and still feel like I'm a good 20-25% off my peak from before the double. Like when I've been on vacation at sea level for a couple weeks then come home to my high elevation trails.... though I seem to recover quicker from that.

How old are you Kelly? I'm 61 and wondering if the recovery is slower for us older folks..


----------



## Kelly Parker (Mar 15, 2017)

54


----------



## jimPacNW (Feb 26, 2013)

About 5 years ago it only took me about 2 weeks to feel sharp, but last time at age 54 iirc, it seemed to take 6 weeks to feel race sharp at sea level, after a 'standard' donation (Cat 1 masters). There could be a few variables in play, so you might experience a range of recovery times.


----------



## EugWanker (5 mo ago)

It sounds like you guys and gals are in way, way, way better shape than I am, but I will give you my 2¢ anyway. Eons ago I used to give blood every 8 weeks religiously (one pint per donation), because the way they did the scheduling was always 8 weeks from the last donation. I guess a lot of people cancelled or chose later days, but I always just said OK because my grocery shopping was in the same building so it wasn't inconvenient.

After about a year of this I started to get chronic fatigue (not chronic fatigue syndrome, but just that I was always tired), and lost all my stamina. And then one day when I went back to the blood donation clinic, they refused my donation because my hemoglobin was too low. I got the million dollar workup at the hospital from multiple specialists with multiple investigative procedures, but everything was perfectly fine... except I had an iron deficiency anemia from giving blood too regularly. After that I stopped giving blood so regularly and my hemoglobin came back to normal, and I felt fine.

IOW, for some of us mere mortals, sometimes even 8 weeks may not be enough to fully recover from just a standard single unit donation.

The staff at the clinic said my situation was unusual because they generally only saw that with small menstruating females, not healthy males. However, I suspect most of the donors weren't quite as regular with their donations, and most of the males were quite a bit larger than me (150 lbs). The other problem was that it just so happened at that time we had reduced our red meat intake too. BTW, I was in my 30s at the time, not 50 or 60.


----------



## KRob (Jan 13, 2004)

If anemia is part of the problem, maybe taking some iron supplements might help during the recovery process? I'm almost three weeks out now and still not 100%. Maybe back up to 80% of my pre-double blood donation cardio fitness level.


----------

