Kicking and recovery swimming are two very important parts of your daily workouts that you need to take seriously!
Most of the master swimmers especially if you swam age-group, high school or collegiate swimming in the 80’s or earlier need to incorporate into your practices kicking and recovery swimming. We (and I am including myself) need to remember as our bodies age, it has to recover to help the muscle growth. You need to feed your body appropriately before and after each workout. You need to be smarter as an adult. Sounds like the preaching never ends but if you want to do your best be smart about it.
Kicking should be close to 50% of your workout. Use kicking not because it is important but as an opportunity to recover your upper body during a set or every other set. Legs are the most neglected part of swimming and the hardest to get into shape. Think about how much most programs don’t spend on kicking and how much most of you don’t enjoy it. Use fins and mix it up.
If you are a tri-athlete use kicking to cross train. Kicking drives speed and can help with your open water speed when you need to lift your head to see and move around other swimmers.
Get your legs into shape and enjoy better starts, turns and finishes during your races.
There is more information in the Masters 7 Week Training Manual.