I have, up to this point, been using the Wii Fit almost entirely for yoga and strength training, because I figure cardio-- where real weight loss would come in-- is being taken care of by the daily bike commute.  And that's mostly true, except that I no longer really get my heart rate up when biking, because I've been doing it so long.

So a couple of nights ago I decided to do a little cardio mixed in with the rest of my workout.  There is this jogging program, see, and the idea is, you put the Wiimote in your pocket and jog in place, keeping pace with your trainer, who is running on an animated path in front of you.  Pretty simple.  And the first time I tried it-- a couple of months ago-- pretty easy.  But I only did "short", which is about three minutes long, which isn't all that much of a workout.  On this night I tried "long" instead.

"Long" was a run of about six minutes.  And it still wasn't much in the way of a workout.  But when I completed it I unlocked another circuit called "island".  Because everyone knows "island" is the next logical word after "short" and "long".

I finished my regular workout and was sort of bored (this was on a day when it was 93 degrees; I couldn't do much writing because I couldn't do much thinking) so I thought I'd give "island" a try.

"Island" is a 14 minute run around (duh) an island.  This was a half-decent cardio workout, especially since I'd done a six minute one earlier.  What I didn't foresee was exactly what an effect jogging in place for a total of twenty minutes would have on me: my calves have been killing me for two days now.  Next time I do this I'm wearing shoes.  It probably won't help, but it's worth a try.

Just brutal.  And I'm not seeing the allergist for another two weeks.

On the same night I nearly blew out both hamstrings bouncing in place, the program stopped between exercises to register a milestone.  It'll do this whenever your daily workout exceeds 30 minutes, and I'm sure there are other milestones I haven't reached yet that it will honor as well.  This particular milestone: 10 hours of exercise.

That's right, I've had the Wii Fit for three months, with over 60 daily workouts in that time, and I've only done a total of ten hours.