Note: October is a big month for Nike Running, with the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, the Nike Women's Marathon and The Nike+ Human Race. This series of tips will focus on the simple question, "What should I do now that the big race is over?"

If you've recently finished a marathon or a half marathon, then you probably want to run another so that you can run a faster time—so you can set a PR (personal record). But the problem that most people make is that they don't give themselves the three chunks of time needed to run a PR.

The first chunk is the time to fully recover from the race, typically three weeks of active recovery for a marathon and 7-14 days for a half marathon, depending on your training status going into it.

The second chunk is when you get back to serious training block. While this seems like an easy to one quantify, most people incorrectly assume that they only need 8 or 10 or 12 weeks, forgetting about things like the flu or inclimate weather or simply life stress like work deadlines. If you think you need 10 solid weeks of training, then you should give yourself at least 12 to get that training in.

The final chunk is the taper…and to be honest, most of you don't need much of a taper. A two or three week taper is typical for professional marathoners, yet I find that most people only need a handful of days to feel well, to feel rested and energetic, to run a PR (and this is where a coach can be helpful—a marathon taper and a taper for a 10k are much different).

The bottom line is that you need to get out a calendar and plan enough time before your next race, giving yourself ample time for all three chunks of time from your last race to your next PR.

Good luck!

Interested in Coach Jay's General Strength videos? Click here to check them out.

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