You always earn it, but the real question is: Do you have time for it?

You always earn it, but the real question is: Do you have time for it?

Sitting down at dinner after a long day—or maybe just inhaling leftovers over the sink—you wonder where yet another day has gone. You got the kids to school, then soccer; you got fruits and vegetables in them a couple of times; you found the three-month-overdue library books; you did a gazillion other things you can’t recall right now, but you do remember one thing: the 7-miler that at 5:45  a.m. you pounded out in preparation for your upcoming half-marathon.
Did you remember–or have time–to shower after that puppy? Hmm…need a little time to think about that one?
SBS, for example, realized that she had managed to complete three different workouts without once stepping behind the shower curtain. So we asked our other mother runners what their records were. From the multitude of Facebook comments that we received, here are some of the highlights:
The award for most days of no-shower-but-daily-sweat has to be given to a mother runner by the name Sara, who ended up finally taking a shower at the end of day 6. Perhaps never wanting to re-smell that experience, she says, “now it’s more like, ‘how many times can I shower between runs?’”
But like many of us, a majority of mother runners admitted to not showering simply because there was no time in the day. BAMRs like Julie and Paula said that it is a very regular occurrence in their lives to go two or even three days without even a rinse. Now that she’s not on maternity leave, however, Julie found that work has saved her from the addictive non-showering cycle. “I have to be polite to my coworkers and my patients,” she notes.
Others, like Kim, treat her runs like dates, making a point to always shower before she sets out. The idea of giving a workout a little bit of refreshing respect is maybe not what many people would think of doing, but Kim ends up not feeling as ‘dirty’ after each workout.
Some mother runners also had some crafty ways to cheat the system:
Jessica, for one, admitted to going three days without bathing. But instead of going to bed still feeling super sweaty, her ritual includes what she likes to call a “Whore Bath”: taking a wet washcloth to her face and pits before slipping into her clean PJs.
Stacy, who said she usually prefers to shower right after workouts, also admitted to using the same trick when time gets away from her. Following in her mom’s tradition, however, she likes to call it a “PTA bath,” standing for the all too important pits, tits, and ass.
Now that we’ve had a little Ragnar action, we can say with certainty that dry shampoo and full-body wipes (Action Wipes are our current fave) are an adequate substitute for a shower.
Lastly, Emily left us with a hidden silver lining for those times when you feel like your perfume just isn’t doing the trick. She purposely didn’t shower for two days “to ensure a protective bubble at a consignment sale.” She was able to spend an entire day browsing without a single person coming within five feet of her and interrupting her flow.
So, even though showering may have to take the back burner more often than we would want, maybe we can all start using our sweat to our advantage. Either way, we can be sure that whenever we actually do get the time to shower, we’ve definitely earned it.
How’s your showering track record?  What’s your record for most days gone without going behind the curtain?