It is pre-breakfast, another day in lockdown, and the spirits might easily be flagging, except I have Sir Matthew Pinsent in my ear telling me to sit tall, drive through my legs and hold my form, even as the pain starts to bite.
“Even when no one is watching,” Pinsent says. “The Olympic eight who won gold at the 2000 [Sydney] Olympics put that message on the wall of the gym. Let’s think about it now.”
Welcome to Zoom Ergos, with Pinsent as the Joe Wicks of rowing, cheerfully guiding more than 200 of us through a sweaty 45 minutes of sliding up and down from a rowing machine in his converted garage.
This is inspiration and education but, above all, motivation delivered to my
