BLACKBURN Harrier Alison Leonard is hoping to continue her fine indoor form at the British Championships this weekend.

The 25-year-old has broken her indoor 1500m personal best twice this month, first at the AIT Grand Prix in Ireland and then at the Glasgow Grand Prix when she lowered her mark to 4:10.77 when finishing sixth in a strong field.

She will compete in the 1500m at the British Indoor Championships in Sheffield this weekend, preferring to focus on the longer distance than her preferred outdoor event of the 800m, allowing her to save speed training for the summer months.

Leonard hadn't been below 4:13 for the 1500m indoors before this season but after a month spent training at altitude she felt confident heading into the season.

"It's been really, really good so far. I've had two indoor PBs so I can't be disappointed with that," she said.

"I felt like I was training really well. In January I went to New Mexico and trained at altitude, which was really good.

"I came back and got a bit of a cold which had me a bit worried but once I started racing I was absolutely fine."

Leonard, the former English Athletics Under-20 champion, trained at altitude in Kenya last season but felt she had to push herself too hard at that height and didn't feel the benefits heading into the 2015 season, narrowly missing out on selection for the World Championships in Beijing.

But having readjusted her training plans this time around she heads to Sheffield full of confidence.

"This is the second winter I've done it," she said. "We went to Kenya last winter but it was maybe a bit too high, everything was just really, really difficult.

"But at Albuquerque (in New Mexico) it's still altitude but not quite as high, I benefited a lot from it. You work a bit harder without doing actual extra miles."

Leonard has set herself no targets for this weekend's championships, with the women's heats at 6.35pm tonight before the final at 3.20pm tomorrow.

Whatever happens she will not be heading to the World Indoor Championships in Portland in the United States at the end of the March, preferring instead to focus on training for the outdoor season at that stage of the year, with qualification for the Olympics in Rio a priority.

But she would still love to run another quick time in Sheffield.

"I want to go out and have a really good race," she said. "If I can run quick that would be great but if not I have run what I want to during the indoors season.

"I just want to do another 1,500 as well. It's a bit of a learning experience for me.

"It's a good field but I'm not going for selection for the worlds. Even if I did qualify I'm not going, it comes quite late on. I'm sure it would be a lot of fun in Portland but it's more important to look at the outdoors."