Training and Giving Blood

I regularly give blood and this year so far I have managed to run 12 marathons and fit in donating 4 times. It obviously doesn't benefit me as far as training or performance is concerned, as unlike some people, I don't get to the blood back in.  Still, I am fit and healthy and have given blood off and on for over 30 years and don't want the fact that I now run marathons to prevent me doing so.

Giving Blood and Training
Apart from the obvious warnings about not doing anything strenuous  for 24 hours to avoid bleeding from where the needle went in, they say don't do anything like operate heavy machinery or possibly drive a bus straight after.  Last time I donated, the nurse was a bit concerned that I had turned up to donate riding a motorbike.  Seems like he had heard I wasn't allowed to do that, but then he checked and actually what I can't do is race a motorbike. Well, that's OK then.  I'm a bit like Reginald Molehusband in this respect (ed.-people of a certain age!) - I don't mix radial and cross-ply tyres on the same axle and I don't ride my bike like a lunatic.

So, having done a marathon on Saturday and given blood on Monday, I went for a lunchtime run on Wednesday and was basically fine. No dizzy spells and no bruising on my arm, but I did feel like I was running at a tempo/threshold pace while I only managed a 3 mile run in 27:20, which is about 3 minutes off what I think I could do this soon after a marathon.  Giving blood obviously has an effect on the pace that you can run, but what about long slow runs.

Long Run?
Five days after donating, the Saturday parkrun was run with daughter Elinor at a pace to get her back under 30 minutes and then on Sunday I decided to go on a long run.  This didn't worry me at all, as I wasn't going to be running at a quick pace.  So, on a breezy cold day, after having taken son Alfred to a cross country run, I set off to run home carrying half a bottle of water, leaving the rest of the family to a post event MacDonald's.  My route took me from Ravenscote School north of Frimley, back towards Frimley Hospital, then uphill on road for 2 miles to get into Swinley Forest.  From there I had an undulating/hilly 7 more miles trail running to get home.

I managed a steady 10min/mile pace the whole time and was pleased to see that the miles with big hills in weren't much slower that the rest of the run and I only had slow miles at obvious places where I had to wait to cross main roads.  I did a total of 10 miles in 1 hour 40 mins; not a blistering pace, but that wasn't the point.  Even better I was feeling good at the end of the run and not really stiff the next day, proving that you can get some quality distance runs in after blood donating as long as you keep the pace down - which is, after all, what you are supposed to do.

Tempo and Fast?
The following Monday was a rest day with a day in London on a financial planning course, mostly sitting still all day, but at least I got to walk the mile back to Waterloo.  Tuesday I was out for a run with Sandhurst Joggers, which was another slow medium run of about 8.5miles once I'd added getting there and back.  By now I was feeling good enough to get some proper endurance training in by joining in with SJ's Thursday tempo run - a nearly 8mile 80% effort which I ran at 8:35/mile pace.  I had a rest day on Friday and then had a go at a fast parkrun with Alfred at our usual Frimley Lodge.  That turned out to be a well paced run, but not quite as quick as I had hoped as I wanted to to get under 23 minutes.  As usual, Alfred appeared to be struggling but really he was just keeping up until 500m to go when he hit the gas and made sure I didn't get within 10m of him from then on.  I finished in 23:35, 2 seconds back on Alf, but I did manage a sprint finish rather than just dying in the last 200m.

Lessons Learned
So, the upshot of this couple of weeks post-marathon and post blood donating running?  I managed some quality training, but 12 days after donating I was at least 30 seconds down on my parkrun time. I have read that it takes about 1 month to get back to the red blood cell count  you had before donating, so it's reasonable to say I am still under the influence of that.  However, I am not that far away from being back to normal for fast paced runs and, given 1 more week, I think I could be running a sub 23 minute parkrun.

In conclusion, if you have a race coming up, I would leave a gap of at least 4 to 6 weeks from giving blood and it shouldn't affect your time.  If you give yourself at least 1 week light training after donating, my experience is that you can get back to normal training as hard as you like from then on.  However, you should train to how you feel and according to your perceived effort, NOT the pace that appears on your Garmin.  If you need to train at threshold pace try wearing a heart rate monitor, as this will show you what an appropriate effort is rather than having you collapse in a heap after trying to hit a particular pace.  Just accept that you are going to be a bit slower for a couple of weeks.  Given a few blood donating cycles, you will learn how to train around it and not affect your races.

Talking of races, I have some more fun lined up next week.  I shall be running another marathon on Friday, running a recovery parkrun with Elinor on Saturday and then having a go at the Handy Cross leg of the Thames Valley XC league on Sunday.  That sounds like a lot of fun!

Thames Meander Winter Marathon

Three weeks spent resting, training and trying to keep up with son Alfred at parkrun has seen me improve my fitness and generally recharge before tackling another marathon.  I think that, at the moment, I can manage a marathon every 2 weeks quite well, but one every week is really hard work. One every 3 weeks feels like a holiday! So, after Abingdon I have three more marathons planned to see me through to Christmas with 3 week gaps between each of them, these being Thames Meander, Agincourt 600th Anniversary and Portsmouth.  2016 is mostly booked up until June with a focus on training up and staying injury free for Endure 24.

In the lead up to Thames Meander I had done a recovery week of 13 miles, a training week  with a gentle 5 miles club run, cycling to work, a medium solo run, a track session (Cooper Test) and parkrun followed by an easier week leading up to the next marathon.  That last week included a Monday club run of 9.5miles and a night time trail run with my son on very muddy trails, which was great fun.  What was also very good was being able to start each of these last runs jogging from the front door pain free, rather than having to walk for 5 minutes to warm up and loosen tight calves and thighs.  There has definitely been some noticeable improvement in former injuries and niggles over the last few weeks.

I have done the previous two events in this series and was expecting a slightly muddier version of the same, but we were told there had been a change to the course where we would start with a short loop up river, then run towards Putney Bridge but turn about 1 mile before it leaving us 2 miles short by the time we got back to the finish line.  That meant we would have to run past the finish line having done about 24.3 miles and add another loop to the end.  This time the organiser's had to take account of a major rowing event on the river which would mean hundreds of coxed fours taking their boats out of the water just before the usual Putney Bridge turn at about the time we would be running past. That shortened the long loop and left us with the short final loop to do.

The weather forecast for race day wasn't great with heavy rain predicted from early morning until at least 2pm. However, although it had been raining overnight, when I got out of bed at 6:30 it was wet on the ground but not raining.  I knew the course was going to be wet and muddy over a lot of the wooded sections so I thought my usual marathon choice of my Hoka Bondi 3s was probably not going to work as they have very little grip.  They are fine for road running or dry trails, but not for mud.  My choice of shoe for today was to fall back to my previous marathon shoe, Brooks Ravenna 4, which is a semi-supportive show and has reasonable grip, which should be OK for a flat trail.  I had never used these shoes on anything but road marathons, so they looked brand new and pristine, but I couldn't afford to get to worried about them - they were the best shoe for the job.

After the usual porridge breakfast and some water, I got the motorbike packed up and set off. I wasn't raining to begin with, but it was certainly windy with strong gusts knocking me sideways on the M3.  When I got to the YMCA Hawker Centre, there was a queue getting into the car park with lots of people arriving to run Kingston parkrun, but I managed to shoehorn the bike in between a couple of generously parked cars and change into my running shoes in the car park, where I also saw Colin and Elaine Brassington, who were there for the parkrun.

The weather at the start was OK, but soon changed.

In the Hawker Centre it was already busy with runners getting their kit together. I saw fellow SJ runners Vicky Horne and Lance King, who were going to be manning the aid station at 10/16 miles. Then Leon Hicks arrived and we got our stuff together ready for the race.  Out at the start we heard from Marathon Man, Rob Young, who set us off.  At the start of the race it was just starting to rain, spits and spots but nothing serious for the first few miles.  The first out and back section of just under 2 miles went quickly and Leon and I were quickly into pace at about 9:30min/mile though it was quite crowded.  We passed the start and continued on tarmac paths for another 2 miles before getting on to stony wooded trail where the rain began to come down harder and there were puddles to weave around and mushy wet leaf litter all over.

Looks like I'm loving the rain (not!) at Vicky and
Lance's aid station (Photo: Sean Smith)

We got to the first aid station at 4 miles and had a brief drink, then at the next aid station at about 7 miles Leon carried on, while I stopped for a bite to eat.  Leon was now about 100m ahead but we were running at the same pace so a I didn't close him down.  At 10 miles we got to Vicky and Lance's aid station to great cheers from our club mates.  At about 12 miles Leon stopped for a toilet break, and I ran past.  I stayed ahead of Leon all the way to about 20miles, but the rain had been really heavy, wind appeared to be in your face both out and back and by then I was struggling along jog walking 250m/50m.  When Leon caught up, we ran on together, jog-walking until the end.  It was good to have company along that part of the course, even though, by the end the rain had eased off, I was still suffering from being so cold from the wind and rain.

We finished together at 4:45:50 and got handed a nice big medal. Thanks to Vicky and Lance for manning an aid station and cheering so well and to Leon for keeping me company on the way home.

Nice big medal, but a bit disappointed with the time.

I have another 3 weeks until my next marathon, so there's some more opportunity to get a bit stronger and get some steady long runs in.  The next one is one of Traviss and Rachel's marathons down in Kent, this time in commemoration of the 600th anniversary of the battle of Agincourt on 27th November.  That will be flat and not muddy, but could still be wet and windy.