It takes months to years for bones and non muscle tissue to adapt to new stresses. Took me 1 year of regular runs to adapt to non heel strikes, but it happens eventually.
Any tips for a non-runner about how to speed up this adaptation? I've been "walking differently" for about 18 months and still feel that the foot/ankle/calf bits may not be ready for running.
I dont think theres a magic way, just optimizing regular stimuli of intermediate (not too hard) stresses is my best guess (similar to any exercising) start doing shorter routes more frequently, then increase both parameters slowly, thats how Im doing it, it got a habit and it feels great!