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@dooks
seriously tiswas, i think mike and dfp have it. your intervals need to be fixed in time other wise they're not really intervals. they need to be achievable though so perhaps make them shorter?
look at any of the masters sets i've posted recently. the last one i put up was 5x100 backstroke on 2 minutes. so probably working at about 70 or 80%. we completed the100m in 1:50, had 10 seconds rest and off again. repeat five times then a 50m "easy" to recover and repeat the whole process three times. if i started to lag by the second or third set of i found i was getting 5 or less seconds rest so i had to push harder to get ahead enough to have a breather. obviously it gets tougher and tougher as you get more and more tired but that's the beauty of it. you have to push and push just to get back in time to get that precious recovery time. also the beauty of training with other people; you can't lag behind because you'll disrupt everyone else... or at least suffer the indignity of of slipping back down the order or even going down a lane.
having said that, i've done plenty where of sets where it's obvious that try as we might, we're (collective decision in the lane usually) going to be missing the time or swimming contually though the recovery time so we need to adjust the target a little bit. no-one can sprint at 100% for set after set. i think it's about finding your limit and pushing at it. if you try to exceed it by too much straight away you're setting yourself up to fail... and yep possibly drown. which isn't good.