That "pushing learning so hard" statement wasn't about riders pushing hard, or pushing limits, It's about CR's and coaches pushing learning too hard. Understood at CSS though. I mean it has the word School in the title and the majority of people are there to learn.
An old dog like me just wants to run safely at faster than street speeds, but only at the speed I'm comfortable with - No faster, and nowhere near the limits of myself or my bike.
I might consider going back to trackdays but run down in novice. This would work well at bigger tracks where I could get out in front and have some alone time until I catch the backmarker. In fact I did that in 2013 at Road America when I wanted to ride but other groups were full. At least after the point where they let us run free, I'd get to pit out early, get out first and have 3 whole laps all by myself before I come up on the slowest guy. It's almost totally ironic that I set my all time fastest lap in novice group. (2:40 with an untuned 675 if anyone cares) I could never run in novice at Blackhawk Farms though. That place is narrow and crowded. And turn 4 has a curb and no runoff.
With the size of COTA, what do you guys think if I just did a novice group ride there? I wonder if an org would even let me considering my condition.