HOLLY Rush believes her speed work is paying off after she notched up her third straight personal best at the British Milers Club Grand Prix in Brimingham earlier this month.

The 33-year-old, who represented Great Britain at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, was eighth overall in the 5000m track race with a time of 16:42.

Rush takes her first real shot at Olympic qualification in October’s Amsterdam marathon.

“The result at the Grand Prix was really quite a good one for me because track racing is a different for me it took me out of my comfort zone,” she said.

“I think I was the only runner who was used to running 10,000 metres and the result’s I’ve had are showing that I’ve been getting faster.

“I ran 16:48 at the Bitton 5k in June and before that I won the Poole 10k 34.13.

“I’ve been working on my speed a lot and I won’t start marathon training until about midway through August – there’s no point in doing both types at once because your speed won’t improve if your legs are more tired from the marathon running.”

Rush spent two months on the sidelines after beng diagnosed with a heel fracture shortly after winning February’s inaugural Wiltshire 10k.

But the Team Bath runner says that the injury is fully behind her and her focus is solely on getting the Olympic qualifcation time of 2:31:00 in Amsterdam.

“It’s a massive race and it’s one of the ones where I’ll have the chance to qualify (for London 2012),” said Rush.

“It’s going to be really tough because there are three places in the team and they’re going to want to take Paula Radcliffe no matter what happens.

“They’ll pick the fastest runner so even if you get the time, you’ve got to be quicker than the slowest person under it, otherwise you might miss out.

“But running that time would be an achievement in itself for me – five years ago, I never thought I’d get the chance to go to the European Championships or the Commonwealth Games.

“Even if you don’t go to the Olympics, the are other opportunities like the Worlds or the next Commonwealths. There’s no reason not to try and make it though.”

Rush is competing in the Berlin 10k this weekend.