Week two, how are you?

Not too bad thank you!
First update of week two (NYCM - 12 weeks) is that Gary and I spent the weekend in France at a wedding. We were in the south of France inland from Cannes near Grasse in a village called Mouans Sartoux which given the weather (hot), the terrain (hilly) and the amount of alcohol (loads) was not conducive to a long run. We did manage a mini run on the Saturday with some plan or not of some more running.
Sunday was out (wedding recovery!) and Monday was the day we were coming back. Was it better to do a long run in France or a long run in England on our return. In the end we decided to do a bit of both. We started with around 5 miles in the morning. Look at the elevation, it was hilly! Then we trekked home and both finished off (in a very tired fashion!) in the evening. I managed 11.5 miles in total, Gary went a bit further.

So, what training benefit is there from running twice a day? Is it worth it? Is it a waste of time? Unsurprisingly I decided to google this.

So, according to google, this is called doing "doubles" and is not usually for the faint hearted. Pete Pfitzinger has written an interesting article on this. He writes "Staying with longer single runs builds endurance, while shorter doubles allow you to train at a faster pace". He also writes "if you are preparing for a marathon and are running less than 75 miles per week, then you should not be running doubles.". Oops, well, this wasn't exactly why we doubled up actually...Finally he states that "an easy 30 minute run on the same day as your medium long run will provide an incremental training stimulus by depleting your carbohydrate stores and training your muscles to rely more on fat at a given speed. It is preferable to add 30 minutes in the evening after a medium long run in the morning. Only do a morning run before an evening medium long run if it will not tire you out for the evening run. A better quality medium long run is preferable to a double in which your medium long run is a slog."
Ah, maybe it wasn't such a silly idea after all?

Of course, Runners World forum members have debated this (and everything else it appears...).

It does sound like convenience sometimes dictates one run or two in a day. I tend to think that something is better than nothing and that was why we ended up doing what we did (and debating it at great length too!).