In theory active recovery might have a place but when it comes to swimming, IMHO most people can't swim well enough to throttle down the output enough to actually do the type of recovery you're talking about. Between the somewhat restricted breathing while swimming and the fact that you have to be a pretty good swimmer to actually have a true "recovery pace" that is not just either a floaty shit show of poor technique or too hard an effort, "active recovery" for short rest periods just does not work for most swimmers. Between sets, a little active recovery or some slow drills may be good but for any rest period between intervals within a set, I'd favor just hanging out at the pool end watching the clock. If you end up getting bored, go harder on the next interval ;-)

Maybe just shorten the interval?

That would result in me slowing down. Not really what I am after...

30 seconds rest on 75s is great. You need to fight the false premise that you have to be doing something and rest is "bad." If you are going hard for a 75 and you can go hard again after 30 seconds, that is perfect. That is EXACTLY what you should doing if you want to get faster. Not the only thing of course but that type of set is key element for building speed. Don't screw it up!

What STP said.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I get not wanting to go slower, but 50 seconds is a lot of recovery time from a 75. I generally reserve 1:1 work:rest for 25's @ 100 race pace work. 12 x 75 on a 1:1 work:rest might be something I could do at 200 race pace, but I think I'd get at least as much, if not more, out of 20 x 50 at the same pace on a ~2:1 work:rest ratio. 75's would be something I'd do at 400/500 pace on a ~2.5:1 W:R ratio.

The only time I do recovery inside a set is when working on 50 race pace. I'll do 50's on 2:00; 1st 25 all out, no breath, to a wall touch, take ~10-15 seconds to catch my breath and check my split, then swim easy back to the starting end to flush the muscles.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

So I’ll add this: I can (and have done) do 10 x 75s @:45/46 on the 1:15 in SCY

But I cannot do 75s @ :50/51 on the 1:20 in SCM.

I’ve tried 1:30 even and maintaining a 4 beat on the last 25 really starts to take a toll.

That's not entirely surprising. 75 yards to 75 meters is still in a fairly "steep" part of the curve in terms of the balance of anaerobic and aerobic contribution to the effort, especially at that pace. To swim 75 meters at that pace, you have to tap deeper into your anaerobic reserves than you do swimming 75 yards at that pace. On the same rest, you won't recover to the same level.

Speaking pace, you're pretty damn fast!

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Your SCY is close to my SCM workloads.... the old Pheonix pool was perfect for allowing swimmers to be side by side with some doing metres and some doing yards ... 8x50 long with half 25m wide and half 25 yards wide. I remember doing a session where we got the middle section and the guys did metres and the girls did yards...

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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Stick with how you are doing it... it's good.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I would say if you still have enough time to adjust and defog your goggles, get in around 10 easy breaths, then the 25 easy is fine. For people just training for triathlon I think it would be almost a given to spend a lot of that rest in active recovery, but for pure masters swimmers, not as important. As to how you do, probably an individual thing, and you would have to compare a lot of sets with and without to see where you fall. I would definitely fall into the need for it. When I go to meets I have to be in a warm up pool virtually up to the starters whistle. If I get dry and cold it is curtains for my swim, I have to be like I'm in the middle of a big set to get the best out of my swims...

I always hated that about most swimmers, warming up, putting on their sweats, and then just meandering to the blocks dry as a bone and drilling their races. When I do that I just tie up somewhere in the race and lose all feel for my race stroke..)-;

If I fail a USRPT rep at the deep end and have to skip an interval for recovery, I'll back float, too.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

Was the 12 x 75 scm or scy??? It is unclear from your text. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

So basically you are calling me a girl?

Would you like to compare best times in the 50m free? ; )

I sucked at 50 Free... 24.10 (SCM) on a relay lead off was my best.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I'm the opposite. I worry about getting cold because I'm wet. I used to do some meets where I didn't do any water warmup before my races just to prove to myself that it wasn't THAT important. For me there's nothing worse than getting all superstitious or OCD about my prerace preparation.