Captain Rick Atridim: Began as a New Years Resolution in 1999, I pledged to walk and bicycle the equivalent of once around the world … 24,901 miles, to combat a diagnosis of high blood pressure. It was a very ‘tall’ resolution, but one I have faithfully fulfilled for the past 18 years. I hope to reach my goal some time in 2020 and inspire others to commit to a trek for heart health.
My Progress for 2017:
Walking: 644 miles (Trek total: 9,673 miles)
Bicycling: 912 miles (Trek total 10,859 miles)
Walking + Bicycling: 1,556 miles (Trek total: 20,532 miles, 82.5% completed)
Average: 4.26 miles per day (Estimated year of World Trek completion: 2020)
Age: 70
Read more about Captain Rick’s ‘Round-the-World’ Walking/Bicycling Trek to combat HBP including stats from previous years and personal history that compelled me to make this trek become a reality.
The Purpose for this post is to inspire people with High Blood Pressure to Exercise for Heart Health
Reporting my annual achievements helps inspire me to keep up with the routine. I hope it will inspire others, including YOU … the person reading this.
I urge everyone reading that has been diagnosed with High Blood Pressure to get very serious about combatting this disease … before it consumes our body via a heart attack or stroke.
I welcome YOU to post your story, thoughts or questions about High Blood Pressure or my HBP World Trek on this post or Captain Rick’s ‘Round-the-World’ Walking/Bicycling Trek to combat HBP a tab always visible at the top of my blog.
RICK, THAT IS DEFINITELY COMMENDABLE, CONGRATS AGAIN! GREAT JOB. Unfortunately, that is no option for us anymore. We needed to start 20 years ago. I have also biked and still do. I practically grew up with a bike in Germany since we did not have a care until the early sixties.
However, in my teens I did many bike trips of several days and 2 weeks, the latter probably being the longest, from close to the Dutch border/Roermond, where I grew up, to the North Sea/Holland near Amsterdam, a 400 km roundtrip journey.
My latest trip (20 years ago) was a bike trip with 40 other people from the Phoenix Ski Club, along the Danube river for one week from the German town of Passau to the Austrian capital Vienna. It was absolutely beautiful. Then, when my decades- old knee injury started to get out of control and I had a knee replacement, things had to slow down. Nowadays, I take my bike out on just the trails from close to our living quarters on Camelback and Hayden, sometimes to Tempe Town Lake.
Hi Sigrid, thanks for the wonderful comment with words of kindness and inspiration for everyone to bike and walk. I enjoyed your story.