Cross-training gone berserk: welcome to the 5-hour training day

Like most runners who can also ride a bike but swim like a soggy pipe-cleaner, I've often thought about trying a triathlon and immediately given up on the idea.

Another big factor has been the sheer amount of training triathletes do; not for me. And yet...

my Tuesday started with a 7.30am warm-up for a nicely intense track session with Ric Rojas: a series of alternating 400s and 200s with 200m jog/walk recovery between each effort, starting easy and getting progressively harder.

It was one of those mornings where you have that feel-like-death moment of doubt and terror when you realise that you absolutely, no way, cannot, not even with a gun to the head, do this workout. The warm-up and drills feel SO bad that you start envying the triathletes flopping around near-weightless in a nice warm pool flapping their arms and legs about.

It also quite normal for me to feel like this at 7.30 on the morning when engaging in anything more strenuous than lifting a cup of tea. That faint glimmer of self-knowledge was just enough to make me persevere. And, lo and behold, I hit the numbers, and the legs felt good, and I finished the workout feeling very pleased with myself.

Well, that 2 hours should have been enough for one day. But a schedule clash meant that this was also a day for a one-on-one Pilates session with my guru Richard Rossiter. So Ric handed me over to Richard.

Richard's brand of classic, hard-core Pilates has become more like circuit training as I've got stronger. His aim is not to give me a relaxing time, but to build functional strength that will transfer to running and also to stimulate neurological repatterning: ie, give me back control of my body. It continues to amaze me how bits of me want to do their own thing; not a good idea when your aim is to run fast and efficiently.

OK, so one intense hour later and ready for a nap, Richard invites me to stay on and do an advanced mat class because one of his students needed to run through it. I hesitated. I was planning on doing aikido in 2 hours time. "Come on...never miss an opportunity for a pump", said Richard, quoting the governor of California. OK, I stayed.

The mat work involved yet more core work and a couple of exercises that I couldn't even busk, let alone complete with "control" (a key concept of Pilates; founder Joe Pilates' first book on his system was called Contrology).

I barely had time to make it to the Boulder Aikikai for the final performance of the day. Why aikido? No good reason, apart from the fact that I love it. I've been doing it off and on for probably 25 years. More off than on, it has to be said, which is why I am probably the world's most senior white belt (aka white trash), with a black belt so far off that I'd be better off starting a completely new sport. Like triathlon, maybe. Aikido moves my body in unique ways that certainly counteract the linear stresses of running. Often times we are being thrown and have to roll and/or take other forms of evading action, so my guess and hope is that it contributes to my general flexibility and overall athleticism, keeping me nimble and quick. As a bonus, the last time I took a severe fall on a rock-strewn trail, I automatically tucked into an aikido breakfall and got away with just a few scratches.

I got home and like Phaedippides, delivered my message of victory before collapsing in a heap: "Five hours physical training today!"

"I don't know how you do it", she says.

"Neither do I", I said, "but you know something? I feel WONDERFUL!"

I did. This is the life (if only). Being self-employed I can steal time like this when I need to. I did managed to fit in an hour or two's work at the computer; play time I owed myself after pulling two all-nighters to hit a deadline the week before. But this would be the ideal balance: 5 hours a day training, a tad of work...my Ideal Day.