Speed work Before LSD (long run) Good or Bad Idea?

My running for the week was Saturday and Sunday ONLY. Good 100 miler training? Probably not! But it's all I can manage at this time.

So the plan:
Saturday 13 mile sprint (race) on Cougar Mt.
Sunday 45-50 miles in Eastern Washington somewhere on the Plain course.

Saturday: After a Long nights sleep (the first in a week) I was up early and ready to run.
I signed in and chatted with a dozen or so people I knew and listened to Scott's excellent pre-race instructs and we were off.

I started out fast because, just like White River, there are back ups in the single track. But not unreasonably fast. Just a little faster than comfortable. I still ended up in downhill logjams. Which slowed the overall pace down to below what I could make up once things opened up. I ran all the hills in the first 9 miles. After that I ran and walked briskly part of each one. I started to cramp up about mile 10 from pushing too hard. All the cramps stayed below the knee. I even had a toe that was cramped. Walking only help until I started to run. I drank about 36 ounces and took 3 salts and had 3 gels. So the cramps are a problem with the speed??? Maybe I need more speed work. The course was a little different than last year but I felt like I was going faster. My time 2:22, I lost 5-10 in the last 3 miles due to cramps. Since I don't train to run this way I can't really complain about being slower.
Oh yeah, I got stung by a freaking Bee at mile ~1.0. I couldn't believe it! It's been about 32 years since the last one (that I can remember). He got me right on the wrist. It feels like someone hit me with a hammer but by looking at it you can't hardly tell it there. I'm sure that slowed me down too.

Sunday: I was up at 3 am to get ready for the long trip over to Plain. Shawn, Rob, Shela and I rode over together. We started from the Saddle ~mile 6 at about 7 am. Right away the Directions were unclear and 3 miles later we saw that we were on the wrong trail. Rob had a map that helped us get back on track. We were taking it pretty easy, but so much of the trail is runnable it's hard to hold back. I guess I regulated the slow pace with my dozen or so nature calls. That was no fun. The loop took a lot longer than we expected.

We had to take a short cut back to the car that cut about 5 miles off the loop because we were risking being stuck out on the trail in the dark. We thought we were cutting 10 miles off but again the markings were unclear and we took another wrong trail. It turned out to be a beautiful trail had was in great shape and 100% runnable. At one point we stopped at a trail crossing and we were attacked by mosquitoes, dozens of them. You couldn't stand still long enough to read anything. I finally tried jogging back and forth on the trail while reading the directions. Thinking back on it, I'm sure we looking pretty silly.

Over all it's a every challenging course. Even if it was marked and had A/S it would still be very tough. It's also extremely dusty with occasional motorcycle traffic.

I felt great all day. I never ran out of energy. So I guess it was a good idea to do speed work before a long run.

Shela also had a great day.