In 1987, Will Henderson arrived in Houston from Miami, Florida. Although never a runner himself, he decided to watch part of the Houston Tennaco Marathon in 1988. He remembered thinking, "Why would anyone in their right mind run 26 miles?". He was never the less impressed and figured that running would be an "easy" form of exercise to do. No special equipment and it could be done at just about any time of day. He began his own personal training program which involved running about three miles, twice a week. After doing this running regimen for about a year, Will committed to "run" the 1989 Houston Marathon, the day before the race!

Although it was one of the hardest things he had ever accomplished in his life, he completed the full marathon in a little under five hours. After being in misery for about a month after the race, Will decided that he wanted to give it another try but perhaps train a little better. For a few years following this experience, Will gradually increased his mileage until he was running around 50-55 miles a week. As time progressed, Will began to get bored with his work-outs, and began to search for ways to break up the monotony of running.

Will started with running with other individual runners which helped him mentally. However, he still remained unexcited about the prospect of long, flat runs on a weekly basis. After some thought and the addition of new baby which obviously consumed more time, he decided that he needed to find a more balanced approach to training.

Wills goal was to structure a work-out regimen that fit into his busy family and professional life. Will also wanted the work-outs to be challenging and more rewarding than the high-mileage and high-time commitment training that he had become accustomed to. Thus, about eight years ago he started running hill workouts part of the year and eventually decided to go at it year round.
Will now rarely runs over thirty-five miles a week, but incorporates intense and diverse work-outs that include both speed and hill training. Will is a firm believer in early work-outs to not only activate your metabolism and energy at the beginning of the day, but to accommodate those with busy family and professional schedules, such as himself.

Will's exercise regimen includes work-outs with his group on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for about an hour. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he cross-trains, weight-training, or basketball or bicycling. He runs longer runs on Saturdays, and trail runs (when he feels like it) on Sundays. Will has found that this diversity not only keeps exercising interesting, but also very motivating. Will tends to only increase his Saturday mileage when he trains for marathons.

Will has six goals in mind for himself and the others in his group:

1. Achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.
2. Strengthen and develop a resilient cardiovascular system.
3. Decrease body fat and increase inner-core strength.
4. Train with a supportive and challenging group of individuals.
5. Remain injury-free.
6. Keep work-outs challenging and diverse, but yet enjoyable.