Grounds for concern
But even the most perfectly-honed athlete can be dragged down to the level of mere mortal by a simple change in the weather. Even they, those perfectly-drilled sporting machines, cannot legislate for the sort of day that hundreds of squats, pull-ups, bench presses or rowing machines cannot prepare you for.
Here are just a few tales of the days when even a sports psychologist could not help.
It was the rain that made former Galway manager and player Noel Lane's day so miserable when the Tribesmen played Cork in the 1985 All-Ireland hurling semi-final. "There was a terrible downpour an hour before the match," Lane said. "I remember the supporters got drowned going into Croke Park. There was a lot of surface water on the pitch. But we still went ahead and won by five or six points. I was playing at full-forward and was marking Johnny Crowley. We did not discuss the conditions but the amount of rain that fell was unreal.
"The pitch cut up badly as the game progressed and at times the sliotar would just stop dead. It eased off for the second-half turning into drizzle but the damage was already done.
"Ironically looking back on it, I think the terrible conditions favoured us because we really had to work hard and we surprised Cork. They were going well but we were up for it and had a better attitude. We had a young enough team."
Like Lane, race-walker Olive Loughnane's ill-fortune struck on one of the most important days of her career. "The worst conditions I ever experienced would have to be the Olympics in Sydney," the Galway girl recalls.
"September 28, 2000, it was the biggest race I had ever competed in and there was a huge sense of expectation. Weather should not have played a major part in the outcome. The temperature was expected to be in the low 20's with no significant wind perfect for a fair Irish Colleen. The race started at 11.00 and I felt sluggish. That sometimes happens but as the race progresses you develop a more comfortable rhythm. Not this time!
"The humidity was oppressive. Humidity to a non-sportsperson is a nuisance. It makes you feel lethargic. To endurance athletes, it is the weather of the devil. The worst thing about humidity is that sometimes you can't tell it is humid until it is too late and the damage is already done. I felt my wheels were coming off around 6k. That left only 14k (nearly 9 miles) to go. But it got worse.
"The clouds parted and the sun came out. As the fatigue increased so too did the temperature. The thought that kept me going was no matter how bad I was feeling everybody was in the same boat. Weather is an external factor over which I was not going to be able to exert any control.
"I finished a very burnt and dehydrated 35th. I was more than pleased with the result. It was my first major championship and I was working full-time. I walked through the mixed zone and grabbed a copy of the results. The official temperature was 28 degrees. The humidity was 98%.
"My big purchase in the duty free on the way home was a little digital gizmo that gives temperature and humidity. Now, when I am travelling to a race it is as important as my shoes."
Sailor Maria Coleman is widely travelled and has come across the full spectrum of conditions. But choosing the wrong equipment almost proved very costly when she turned Danish Blue.
"Probably one of the worst days of my sailing life was in the first year that I lived in Denmark. It was a bad winter even by their standards, though I was not to realise that before I went out sailing. It was minus 20 degrees when we arrived at the club as we prepared to go out for a sail. I did not notice that they were all wearing DRY suits as I prepared to cloak myself in my Irish WET suit.
"The radio was blasting out ice warnings to the fisherman, but it went over my head as I did not speak Danish. Ten of us broke the ice across the harbour with our feet and glided our boats out into the liquid waters beyond. The wind increased and the chill factor decreased to a lot less than 20 degrees below. The water coming over my bow froze the control lines in place and icicles formed off the trailing edge of the mast, frozen horizontal by the wind flow. The water in the bottom of the boat was solid, so to stay afloat I had to hit it and throw a bit out.
"When I did eventually capsize I learned how to swim really fast. When I got back to safety I suddenly realised why every Danish harbour changing room has a sauna you need it to stay alive. It took one hour for the blood to return to my toes and fingers. I am not sure, however, if it ever got back to my brain!"
YOU would expect a soccer player to recall a similarly chilly match-day as his darkest hour but although Republic of Ireland striker Glen Crowe shivers at the thought of a Bohemians European tie in Estonia. The game was played in mid-July when the Gypsies travelled to Tallin to play the second leg of their Champions League tie against Levadia Maardu.
"We won the first leg 3-0 at Dalymount but it was clouded in controversy as the Estonians had appealed the result, presenting a 12-page dossier of complaints, including allegations that the crossbars at Dalymount Park were too low and that the dressing rooms were too small. The appeal was thrown out by UEFA.
"We travelled expecting summer conditions. But we were in for a rude awakening when a savage thunder and lightning storm struck right over the stadium during the match. The game was suspended temporarily as players ran in all directions for cover. It was the worst scene of pandemonium that I have ever seen."
Bohs would be forgiven for thinking that the Estonian team would go to any lengths to get their own back on the Dublin side, including trying to postpone the game. But play resumed, the game ended 0-0 and Bohemians went through.
THERE was no such happy outcome for former Ireland scrum-half and captain Michael Bradley whose thoughts turn to Wellington on New Zealand's South Island and a winter's day in May, 1992 when the men in green took on the All Blacks.
"The stadium was a cradle for the wind with two massive stands on either side. The gale was blowing right down the pitch like a funnel and to make matters worse it poured rain for almost 60 minutes of the game. We got absolutely hammered, something like 54 points to 17.
"I'd like to think the conditions did help them, but New Zealand really came out with all guns blazing that day. The week before we nearly beat them there was only three points in the game and they got an awful pasting from the press. So between that and the weather it was not at all good for us."
Ironically, the worst of the conditions at last year's British Open at Muirfield were a blessing for veteran Irish golfer Des Smyth. The Laytown man got off to a great start to the Open with rounds of 68 and 69 which left him tied for sixth place, one shot behind the leaders at the halfway stage. Then came day three and some of the worst conditions seen at a major championship with unplayable wind and rain battering the Scottish links course.
"It was a difficult day," Smyth said, "one of the worst I've ever played in. I'm sure a lot of people felt like me out there. It was so bad, almost unplayable. But I seemed to manage to make a few pars during that period and I was happy to be still in contention at the end of it."
As others, including world number one Tiger Woods dropped shot after shot, Smyth carded a 74 to leave him tied for third overnight going into the last round. He does not contend, however, that being used to the links golf gave him the edge over, say, some of the Americans used to the immaculate courses and conditions on the US Tour.
"When the conditions are that bad nobody has an advantage. It was basically survival during a two-hour period, trying to drop as few shots as you could. It was obvious everyone was going to make a lot of numbers because it was impossible to hit the fairways. It's difficult on a calm day, but with the wind like that, it was impossible to hit fairways. Any time you were in the rough it was almost an immediate bogey. The weather was as bad as I can ever remember. It's unbelievable it should happen in July more like a December or January."
Being a National Hunt jockey, David Casey is used to such days in deep midwinter. But when your horse is too cold, wet and miserable to even jump then you know things are bad.
That's what happened to him this Christmas at Leopardstown. "It was pretty horrific, lashing rain, there was water on the track and the ground was horrendous. It was freezing cold as well and miserable with water splashing up from the track. It was difficult just to hold the reins, your hands were so cold and the reins were so wet they just slipped from your grasp.
"In one race I was riding Finians Ivy for Tony Martin. He went off favourite in the Paddy power Chase but he actually pulled up. He didn't like it at all. Mind you, I wasn't too fond of it myself. I suppose days like that make the good days all that much better though."
It is not just the weather that can play havoc with your best-laid plans. Trevor Welch's first big game as a commentator with TV3 was in the sublime surroundings of the Camp Nou stadium when Barcelona hosted Leeds in the Champions League. On the night he seemed to come across well but the viewers at home never twigged that their man on the spot could not actually see the players.
"I was very excited as it was the Champions League and it was my first game to commentate on in three years since I had left Cork Multi Channel," Welch recalled.
"I was nervous about the job, as I had not seen much of the two teams. But I could not believe it when we were led to our commentary position we were so high up that I could have shaken hands with Mr Moon.
"This was my worst nightmare coming true. The players were just little dots. I was well into the match before coming to terms with who was who, while at the same time hoping that I hadn't ruined my chance of further commentaries.
"I sweated more that night and it was not from the heat. My monitor was a good distance away from me too. Even my analyst John Toshack, who managed various Spanish clubs, was struggling with the Barcelona players. "He said to me 'if you make it here, you will make it anywhere.'
"Leeds were hammered that night just like me! However they improved and made it to the semi-final. So did I."
In GAA, Dinny Allen won a plethora of medals during his illustrious career for club and county but few were harder earned than the All-Ireland Club football winner's medal he picked up with Nemo Rangers in 1979. "We were playing Scotstown from Monaghan and even though it was St Patrick's Day the game was played in a blizzard. It was horrific, a fiasco and nothing came near to that day as far as I was concerned.
"The night before the game we stayed in a hotel in Dun Laoghaire which was closed for the winter and they only opened it for us.
"It was like that horror film, 'The Shining', with Jack Nicholson going round the hotel with no-one else in it. That night we slept in the rooms which weren't properly heated and we all slept in our tracksuits. It acclimatised us for the following day probably.
"Come the game and you could only see people within 30 yards or so of you. You couldn't see either goal and if you hadn't the ball you just waited with your opponent until you saw some shadows coming out of the blizzard. It was that bad I expected Shackleton to come out of it.
"It was brutal. At that time I always used to have a little drop of brandy before I went out for a match but I think I overdid it that day, it was so cold.
"I took two drops before the match and another two dollops at half-time and by the start of the second-half I was nearly singing the Boys of Fairhill."
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