Water Heater Flushing

Hello again...

Since the water system is still drained on my 2001 TM2619, I decide to check the anode on the water heater. Well, there wasn't much left, and there is quite a bit of sediment on the bottom of the water heater, which I am assuming is the disintegrated/decomposed anode.

I have one the flushing tubes that hooks up to a water hose, but before I start flushing, since there is no water in the inlet, I started worrying about some sediment getting flushed into the cold water inlet in addition to being flushed out the anode opening. For those of you who have flushed your water heaters, is this a problem? I thought perhaps I should hook up the city water until water just starts coming out the anode opening, before I start flushing. Since water will flowing in from the cold water inlet, that should keep any sediment from entering there...

Thanks...