IT IS nearly 10 years since Sir Steve Redgrave retired from rowing, the sport which earned him five Olympic gold medals in consecutive games and made him a household name.

Today, from his home near the river in Marlow, Bucks, he admits that retirement hasn't been particularly easy, although he's made a new career as a motivational speaker, charity fund-raiser and media sports pundit.

Oh, and he's endorsing a new range of men's leisurewear too.

Redgrave, 47, has also become the government's 2012 'Sports Champion', advising ministers and sports bodies on ways of increasing participation in sport at all ages as a lasting legacy from the London Games.

Busy, yes. Excited at the new challenges? Mmm.

"I thought I would love this new life. No schedule, no pressure, no pain.

"But there's not much passion or desire or many challenges either," he reveals.

"I hate to say it, but everything feels like a hobby," he explains in his new book, Inspired, part autobiography, part tales of sporting greats including Muhammad Ali, Brian Clough and Tiger Woods.

Since leaving Sydney with his final Olympic gold in 2000, he's left the gruelling training behind, the years of pushing his body to its limit, the agony of the race and the ecstasy of the win.

But the ulcerative colitis, a painful intestinal disease, and the type two diabetes he developed three years before Sydney, have remained.

At the Olympics, he taped a couple of sugar sachets to the bottom of the boat, just in case of emergencies.

Today, he is permanently connected to an insulin pump, about the size of a pager, which he keeps in his pocket and which drip feeds insulin through a pipe into his system to keep him stable.

"Does it interrupt my life? Yes, it's a pain and I wish I didn't have it.

"I have to walk around with a drip attached to my stomach and a patch that reads my blood sugar levels.

"The wires get tangled up in bed at night and my sleep is slightly broken as you become aware of the pump all the time."

He has worked hard to control the illnesses which could so easily have cut short his career, had it not been for his self-belief, sheer determination and bloody-mindedness.

Did he ever, in his darkest moments, think, 'Why me?'

"With the diabetes it took me 12 months to mentally come to terms with my body not doing what it was doing naturally before. That was very frustrating, but it was just something I had to deal with."

He says he doesn't really miss rowing because he is still involved with the sport, as president of British Rowing and on the management committee of a number of regattas. He also hopes to coach in the future.

But he admits: "Rowing is very much a 'doing' sport. You either do it or you don't.