[Yakaru]

As a sort of corollary -- A fairly respected member of the local track community told me recently "If you're not crashing from time to time you're not getting better"... Instantly downgraded my opinion.
Now there's also a matter of confidence -- I have noticed that if I get pushed to go a notch or two faster than I do by default that I still feel quite comfortable and that I can maintain that pace, but until pushed into it I have a hard time convincing myself of that fact. To use a metaphor, I tend to ride at 60-70% when it's perfectly fine to push it up to the 80s. But there's a difference between that and pushing past my comfort -- that's a sign I'm outrunning my skills and, while I may improve, it won't be any faster than running 'at' comfort with a solid set of leftover attention for my skill work.