Turnbull competes in this weekend's Irish Indoor Championships

Turnbull believes he needs more indoor outings ahead of his expected challenge over the metric mile at next month's European Indoor Championships.

"I'm just out of the habit of running indoors," Turnbull told BBC Sport.

Turnbull ran a 3.58 mile a fortnight ago but shortcomings were apparent last weekend when he clocked 4.02 in the US.

"It takes a while to get comfortable running indoors again with the shorter laps so I think three races this weekend would help me in terms of preparations for Birmingham," added Turnbull.

800m heats are scheduled for Saturday evening's programme and there is more than a two-hour gap between the 1500m and 800m finals on Sunday.

The 800m field has lost James McIlroy but top-class Kenyan Justus Koech, who has run 1:44.16 outdoors, has been added to an entry which is also expected to include Ireland's Liam Reale and David McCarthy.

Training has been going very well over the winter Paul McKee

Belfast 400m runner Paul McKee is also looking forward to competing this weekend.

McKee will run in his specialist event and if things go well, he could be enticed into competing at the European Indoors.

"I'm not ruling anything in or out as regards Birmingham," said McKee, who will be involved in heats on Saturday evening ahead of Sunday's final.

"Training has been going very well over the winter and while an indoor season wasn't originally part of my plans, I decided a fortnight ago that it wouldn't do me any harm to have a go at the Odyssey."

McKee won a World Indoor bronze at the Birmingham venue in 2003.

There will also be plenty of interest in how Anna Boyle performs in the 60m.

Boyle believed that she had improved her own Irish record to 7.25 in Cardiff recently only to be left frustrated by a timing malfunction.

I'm aiming towards the European Indoors which would be something new for me Anna Boyle

However, the Dunloy woman has recovered from that disappointment and is looking forward to this weekend.

"I been training with up in Derry with (coach) Stephen Maguire and Jason Smyth and it's been going very well," said Boyle.

"I also had some warm weather training in Gran Canaria and also spent some time at Loughborough using their facilities.

"I'm aiming towards the European Indoors which would be something new for me as I've never competed at a major indoor championship."

International stars competing in Belfast include Olympic Decathlon champion Roman Sebrle, current European 20K Walk Champion Francisco Fernandez and European U23 800m champion Yevgeniya Zolotova of Russia.

Sebrle will compete in the 60m hurdles and the high jump in Belfast which both take place in Sunday's programme.

Big names in action in Saturday's evening's programme include David Gillick (60m heats), James Nolan (3000m final) and Fernandez in the opening event of the championship, the 5K walk (1645 GMT).