Have decided to do a couple of duathlons later this year, so will need to start running again. Thing is the last time I tried to run, admittedly a couple of years ago, I ended up with horrendous tendonitis in both legs which took a long time to get rid of. If you were in my position what distance would you start your training runs at? Then how would you progress them?

Start with walk runs or even just walking if you are not very active.
Then for just the running start at around 20mins then build up slowly.

I’m very active, just not running. CV fitness will not be a problem.

I would still take it very easy to start with . I’ve been through a similar experience and ended up doing walk runs every second day for the first ten days or so.

SBZ, CV fitness is prob the trouble. You need to take it really easy and steady to let the tendons adapt to the impact, hence run / walking for at least a few weeks before considering just running.
Alongside that, do eccentric calf stretches as a preventive measure.

Too many of my riding mates have taken up running, got carried away as lungs & legs are good, only to in.jure themselves quite quickly and give up.

Good luck with the du’s.

Buy the right running shoes – visit a proper running shop or physio with some form of gait analysis, the money spent will be well worth it.

What worked for me were doing plenty of eccentric contraction exercises – i.e. going one step further than basic stretches and actually strengthening the tendon.

If you scroll about half-way down the following link you’ll find the heel drop exercises that well and truly sorted mine out.

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/achilles-tendon-injuries-a-full-guide-to-causes-symptoms-prevention-techniques-and-treatments-41361

Good luck!

will second what Chaos said – just starting to recover from second bout & promising to myself to keep up with the stretching exercises this time 😳

I would say that with your level of fitness and competitiveness Smee, you’ll piss all over the competition. Honestly, just go out there and do it. You’re awesome.

Had terrible itbs at the start of the season. Did all of my training at easy pace, starting off at 3 miles. Iced and ibruprofened my knee twice a day and it gradually eased and allowed me to build up. Next thing was subing all speedwork for hills for about 2 months.. Seems to have done the job, running 40-45 miles a week injury free now. Not a scientific approach like.