Is there a busier - or better- bigwig in sport that Lord Sebastian Coe? Since the acquisition of the 2012 Olympic Games for London in  Singapore five years ago, clinched by his persuasive eloquence, his feet have not touched the ground , just ass they never appeared to do when he was at his athletic zenith.

Goodness knows how many miles he has flown, hands he has shaken or speeches he has made in the cause of selling the London Games to the world - as well as Britain.

This week he invited me to join him for a day “on then run” so to speak, and believe me, it is all go with Coe.

We left on the 8.10am from King’s Cross to Leeds, where sport’s supreme travelling salesman was embarking on another retailing mission, this time to deliver the message to people in Yorkshire that  while the Olympics and Paralympics are a capital idea, it is not just London which can profit from of staging the biggest sporting show ever held in Britain.

To this end LOCOG (The London Olympic Games Organising Committee), which he chairs,  have initiated a number of schemes to encourage cities, towns, villages and communities throughout the UK to play their part in making 2012 a national celebration and convince them in Coe’s words "that this is a momentous opportunity for British business in the current economic climate."

He expands on this as we head northwards to what the London-born Coe, claims as is actually his manor - Yorkshire. "I have always regarded it as my home county," he says. "It was where I learned my trade as an athlete. I was at school in Sheffield, did most of my early athletics there, went to university in Loughborough and my mother was Indian so I don’t naturally view the world from inside the M25. 

"From the outset, even before we won the bid, I was trying to convince people that however compelling the story was, this could not be seen simply as 200 acres of re-generation in East London. There had to be a relevance to the people in Truro and Stornaway.  We set up these programmes in the early days to drive this message into their own back yards, modelling it on the nine English regions, plus Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.  We involved all sorts of people and organisations from local MPs, sports bodies, schools and health authorities. The whole idea was to inspire another generation for sport.  For me this has always been the template.

"In Yorkshire some 28 businesses have picked up contracts in connection with the Olympics. Everything from construction to publishing, several hundred millions pounds worth of business.  When you think we have to procure about a million pieces of sports equipment, 16,500 shuttlecocks, 146 weight lifting bars, 30 horses for the modern pentathlon, that we have an Olympic village to furnish with 17,000 beds - that is an example of how British businesses can profit from the Games in London. 

"I recognise that when I go to Stornaway for instance, there aren’t too many people there who are going to be at the Games. But there are businesses there, like Harris Tweed and chocolate manufacturers who can benefit. They can use the Games as a showcase."

He adds: "It is also a fact that the further you get from London, the more creative the ideas for involvement with the Games. When we went to Stornaway,  an hour’s flight from Glasgow, I opened the Western Isles Primary Schools track and field meeting. It had a big Olympic focus. I used to bitch about sitting on the North Circular road for 45 minutes on the way to Haringey on a Tuesday night, but some of these kids had got up at four in the morning to come by ferry. When you sit and talk to them between events, they are absolutely focused. There is a huge awareness about the Olympics so this is really what these days are about.

"It is really important that the Games leave a legacy - and much of that legacy must be outside of London. When  people ask ‘Is there really anything in it for us?’  My job to persuade them that there is."

He does so with zest and style as we visit a business conference in Bradford, where he also meets a number of 2012 Young Ambassadors displaying fabric work highlighting the Cultural Olympics, and at Lister Park  is mobbed by hundreds of Yorkshire schoolkids ,among them  a group of cheerleaders waving vibrantly coloured pom-poms, at a sports day. He hands over plaques and certificates, starts a cycling demonstration and then lustily yells encouragement as runners pound the grass track in a 400 metres race.

As he inspects projects they have prepared for him, chatting with the kids and glad-handing the dignitaries, it is with dexterity borne of the politician he once briefly was. Handed a microphone, he slips into oratory overdrive. "Things come alive when I get out of London and come to places like this," he assures them. "We’ve got the Games, we’ve got the structure, we’ve got the strategy. Now it is over to you and your local communities to pick up the baton."

Another project is to encourage youngsters to understand the media contribution to the Olympics. It is called ‘Supporters to Reporters’, in which school children turn journalists and today, naturally they wish to interview him. "You always ask much tougher questions than the real journos," he laughs. One of them comes from nine year Chloe Powney from Our Lady of Victories School in Bradford.  "Who do you think was better - you or Steve Ovett?" As ever, Coe is supremely diplomatic. "I think we were both better at different times."

On our whistle-stop tour there is hardly had time to catch a breath and barely time to snatch a sandwich - or in 53-year-old Coe’s case, half a pork pie. 

Everywhere he is greeted like royalty and in sporting terms, he is probably the closest to royalty that we have. In Shipley, at he stops by a local pool to present a certificate to 13 year-old Sam Thornton, a Tom Daly wannabe who wins approval as he executes a perfect back two and a half somersault with tuck. "What advice would you give me?" the dripping-wet, red-headed lad asks. "Listen to your coach and just live your dream," he is told."

Finally, it’s back to Bradford where he is joined by the new Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson for more speeches and presentations this time at the 500th Inspire Network project, which rewards smart and creative ways to promote a 2012 connection.

On the 4.05pm back to London, where Coe is dashing to yet another evening of flesh-pressing with a major Games sponsor, he chews over that inspirational aspect of the Games with Robertson. "They question people most ask me is whether they are worth it," he says. "Believe me, with every day that passes it seems a better deal."

It has been a day of endless interviews and  photo opportunities, all of which he undertakes with patience, charming everyone as he signs autographs and poses for "just one more please Seb"

"He’s not at all uppity for a lord, is he?" one bystander had remarked at Lister Park.  In the 30 or more years I’ve known him, uppity is certainly not a word you could ever associate with Coe.

The good lord has always had a neat sense of humour, too. On the road from Leeds to Bradford we pass a pub curiously named the Cock and Bottle. "Hmm," muses Seb. "Sounds like a dope testing centre."

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics