We’ve all heard about OrangeTheory, whether it’s from a friend convincing you to join, a close relative, or even during your typical workout session at the gym, it seems as though everyone wants you to join their cult. “Hey man, wanna join me in one of my OrangeTheory classes? I heard they got this killer workout called Catch Me If You Can and I’d love for you to try it out with me!”, that was what one of my male friends told me one day but I kindly declined the offer since I preferred basic weightlifting. However, this whole Catch Me If You Can thing got me intrigued. What was it about? Is it like the movie? That’s when I decided to dig around to find out exactly what OrangeTheory’s Catch Me If You Can workout actually is.
The Catch Me If You Can workout at OrangeTheory Fitness is a 20-minute routine that’s broken down into 2-minute segments. During these segments, you’ll have to reach a certain distance goal, otherwise, you get cut from the workout. However, every 2 minutes, the distance that you need to reach increases and so does the difficulty.
In this article, we’ll explain what OrangeTheory’s Catch Me If You Can Workout is all about and how you can complete it.
What is OrangeTheory’s Catch Me If You Can Workout?
I know what’s on your mind, is this a workout where you get to sit on a couch while watching the movie “Catch Me If You Can”? Well, sorry to break it to you, but that’s not really how it goes. Although everybody wishes getting in shape was that easy. In fact, it’s one of the toughest OrangeTheory classes that they have in their arsenal.
If you’re a competitive person, then you’re going to absolutely love this fun workout. The only catch (no pun intended) is that you’re not competing with anybody else, you’re actually competing with yourself!
The Catch Me If You Can workout can be done in 3 different ways:
- On a treadmill
- On a strider (you multiply the distance by 3)
- On a stationary bike (you multiply the distance by 4)
Since the treadmill is the most popular choice for many OrangeTheory members, that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
The Catch Me If You Can workout is a 20-minute workout and a competition with yourself that’s broken down into 2-minute segments. During these segments, you’ll have to reach a certain distance goal. However, every 2 minutes, this distance increases. This means that you’ll have to increase your pace as time goes by.
It’s pretty much a bunch of checkpoints where you have to reach a distance, otherwise, you get cut from the workout. When that happens, you’ll get back to training on the rower for the remaining of the block.
- The first checkpoint (or segment) is to go a distance of 0.15 miles in under 2 minutes. In order to reach that, you’ll need an average speed of 4.5 miles an hour (doable for most people).
- The next checkpoint is 0.3 miles in under 4 minutes and you can reach it even if you keep the same 4.5 miles per hour speed.
- After that, you’ll need to reach a distance of 0.7 miles in under 6 minutes, however, in order to do that, you would need an average speed of 5 miles per hour (from the very beginning).
- And this goes on for many more minutes and the difficulty increases.
Here is a table that breaks down all the numbers for you:
| Time (minutes) | Minimum Distance that you need to reach | Average Speed To Get This Far | Segment Speed | Distance Reach With an 8.4 Pace |
| 2 | 0.15 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 0.28 |
| 4 | 0.3 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 0.56 |
| 6 | 0.5 | 5 | 6 | 0.84 |
| 8 | 0.7 | 5.25 | 6 | 1.12 |
| 10 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 1.4 |
| 12 | 1.3 | 6.5 | 9 | 1.68 |
| 14 | 1.6 | 6.857 | 9 | 1.96 |
| 16 | 1.9 | 7.125 | 9 | 2.24 |
| 18 | 2.3 | 7.667 | 12 | 2.52 |
| 20 | 2.8 | 8.4 | 18 | 2.8 |
Is OrangeTheory’s Catch Me If You Can Workout Easy?
As you can see from the table, the end goal of this workout is to reach 2.8 miles in terms of distance in under 20 minutes.
This may sound easy, but it’s actually one of the toughest challenges that you can take part in, especially if you’re a beginner.
To put things into perspective for you, the goal of the first 10 minutes of the workout is only to reach 1 mile, however, during the last 10 minutes, you’ll need to reach an additional 1.8 miles which are almost double the distance.
To make it all this way, you’ll need an average speed of 8.4 miles for 20 minutes straight as explained in the table, and that’s definitely not that easy.
Conclusion:
The Catch Me If You Can Challenge at OrangeTheory may sound complicated at first, but you’ll get the hang of it as soon as you start. And remember, at the end of the day, it’s just a numbers game. If it’s your first time doing it, you’ll probably not gonna be able to finish, unless you’re used to running, and don’t be ashamed of that! Losing is only temporary, and with time, you’ll reach the end-distance goal with energy to spare.