This is Joe McMullin’s take on how coaches should encourage their athletes to do the million meters on the rowing machine over the summer

I am encouraging the rowers all year to do the million over the summer, even when the fall season starts, I’m pointing out the benefits of doing the million meters. Before the spring season I will lay out summer training options so the rowers can plan ahead. If, as a coach, you don’t give your rowers a plan, their parents and guardians will and you’ll lose valuable training time for your rowers. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll have a handful of rowers who have done the million and typically post very strong results on the erg the following year,

The best option for junior rowers during the summer is to get to selection camp and make the U19 national team. Other options include going to sculling camps, college weekend camps, training with your local team, rowing with high performance camps, and Olympic development camps. Another option is for rowers to cycle 2000 miles over the summer (20 miles a day) or run 621 miles (10K a day of running), BUT the Million is one of the best ways to get in shape/stay in shape for the next season.

The basics of the million is rowers will do roughly 10K-a-day in meters starting the day after their last regatta for 100 days. I typically put the start date at the Sunday after Stotesbury and the end point is around Labor Day weekend, which is when fall rowing usually starts back up.

The athletes should have easy access to a machine. Some teams I have coached have rented ergs for the summer anywhere from $50-$150 as a fundraiser for the team. Some athletes own their own machines and others don’t have an issue gaining access to a machine at their local gym or boathouse

The best way to have the athletes record scores is to create a shared Google Sheet that the athletes can update themselves with a running total in the right most column. This way the athletes can see what their teammates are doing on a daily basis. Another option is to use C2’s website recording system and create an erg team. I would periodically check the totals throughout the summer and email the group of athletes and call out athletes who are doing well and those who need some encouragement.

As for the breakdown of the weeks and days, some athletes just need to know the total they should be hitting per day, others need an actual day-by-day breakdown of how to do the Million. My go to is:

• Monday: 5K-5K-4K-3K-2K-1K
• Tuesday: 6K-5K-4K-3K-2K
• Wednesday: 5K-4K-3K-2K-1K
• Thursday: 6×2.5K
• Friday: 5x3K
• Saturday: 5K-4K-3K-2K-1K
• Note: This totals to 100K for the week and will give the athletes Sundays off. This also gives the athletes more flexibility if they have weeks they don’t have access to a machine
• Note 2: the rest is usually between 1 and 2 minutes between each piece.

My go to if the athletes have no issue with access and doing 100K in a week is a lot, like rising sophomores:

• Monday: 2x5K
• Tuesday: 5K-4K-3K-2K-1K
• Wednesday: 4×2.5K
• Thursday: 5K-4K-3K-2K-1K
• Friday: 3x3K + 1 1K
• Saturday: 4K-3K-2K-1K
• Note: This will give them 70K on the week with Sundays off
• Note 2: the rest is usually between 1 and 2 minutes between each piece.

If the team can rent out C2 sliders to the rowers or the team can rent out RP3s, that would also be an ideal way for the rowers to build fitness over the summer. I’ll go into more detail about the benefits of C2 sliders in another post.

Lastly, I would encourage the rowers do to the million feet out to help build core strength.