Is it normal for tmpgenc to encode an avs file 2 or 3 or 5 times automatically without you touching it? It has a different cq each time. THe 1st 4 times taking 5 or 10 mins. Then the 5th time taking 2 hrs. If it isn't normal what can I do to stop it from happening?

If you are using tok or cqmatic or any other software with prediction function, it is completely normal. Previous short encodings are for final file size prediction.