Prep for One-Hour Swim: 4-3-2-1 Climb Down the Ladder 3 Different Ways

This practice was done is a 20-yard pool. If you use a 25-yard pool, the yardage would be the same. I may be doing the One-Hour Postal Swim this weekend with my Masters team, but I have not been swimming much in the past month due to bronchitis. I wanted to get in some freestyle yardage today, to build my confidence that I could swim for an hour if necessary.WARMUP: 500Continuous swim, done with fins.100 fly drills + 100 back drills + 100 breast drills + 100 free drills + 100 combo drillsMAIN SET: 3,000Three rounds of the following:400 + 300 + 200 + 100Rest interval between each of the above is 16 "bobs" after the 400, 10 bobs after the 300, 5 bobs after the 100, and one minute rest after the 100 to change equipment and drink water.1st Round: Wear fistgloves2nd Round: "Nekked" hands3rd Round: Wear small paddlesI set myself the goal of swimming each lap in the same number of strokes, regardless of what I was wearing on my hands. My normal stroke count in a 20-yard pool, with "nekked" hands, is 11 strokes per lap. So 11 was my target. Each time my stroke count went up to 12, I would do one lap of backstroke to get my breath back, then return to freestyle at 11 strokes per lap. My second goal was to have fewer of those 12-strokes laps on each successive round. That is, I wanted to do less backstroke on each successive round. (Actually, I wanted to do MORE backstroke on each round, but that's because I'm an air addict.) I didn't worry about my times, just hitting my counts. I ended up doing a total of 11 laps of backstroke on the 1st round (out of a total of 50 laps); 5 laps of backstroke on the 2nd round (out of a total of 50 laps); and NO strokes of backstroke on the 3rd round. I could have swum most of the paddle laps at 10 strokes per lap, but I forced myself to kind of let go and SLIP through the water with a QUICK stroke rate that felt EASY after focusing on length for the first 2 rounds. I now feel like I can handle the One-Hour Swim. My plan during the swim is to count my strokes (usually 15 or 16 s/l in a 25-yard pool), and throw in a lap of backstroke each time my count creeps up a stroke. WARMDOWN: 200Put on flippers and go an EZ 200 of body dolphin and flutter -- NO ARMS.Total Yardage: 3,700