I'm contemplating trying my hand at some runs. If it turns out I'm good enough, I may volunteer for some charity runs with AGDQ.

However, before I get started, I'd like some tips. Namely ...

1. I have a life. Will I need to put in 60+ hours per week in practicing my runs in order to get really good at them?
2. What are some basic “drills” I can do to help improve my speedrunning skills? I've noticed that some AGDQ runs have the guys pressing random buttons to keep the blood flowing in their fingers (in one Yoshi's Island run where the fire alarm went off, the runner actually spent about ten minutes doing nothing but that, to get the blood flowing again). Are there any OTHER basic drills you recommend?
3. Along the same vein, are there any means of testing my reflexes to see if I have what it takes to be a good speedrunner?
4. How do I experiment with and discover new glitches to pitch to the community? The only glitches I've ever found in any games are those that other people have spelled out to me.
5. Mods are not allowed. But … what about official DLCs? Like Skyrim's Dawnguard/Dragonborn, for example? Are they allowed?
6. Any OTHER advice you can provide?

Thanks

I'll take a stab at being helpful here. Some people may not agree with my answers, but here goes. 1: The more time you put into it, the better you get at it. Just like any other hobby. 2: Practice specific tricks in your game. I think a lot of finger pressing was just Trihex's way of keeping his head in the game. Myself and a lot of other runners would probably never do something like that. I even run a game that requires you to mash as fast as possible for combat for about 2.5 hours and I don't do things to warm my hands up. But, when you choose a speedgame, practice the tricks that make it go faster over and over before doing runs. Even when you are able to run the game, practice specific trouble sections. This obviously varies a bit game to game. 3: Testing reflexes? I don't know, try to speedrun WarioWare: MegaMicrogames! Reflex city, and speedrunning. Not all games require massive reflexes. Again, practice is more important. Don't spread yourself too thin over a bunch of games. 4: Just play around, basically. Get a good idea of specific mechanics, or try everything you got at certain barriers, etc. 5: Mods? That all depends on the category. Some categories would let you use mods or cheats in certain games if the other runners agree to it. The same should apply for DLC. Depends on the game itself. If you're wondering about Dawnguard/Dragonborn DLC, ask Skyrim runners directly and let them tell you if you can use that DLC in the run. 6: Do this for fun. Don't focus on going big. This year's AGDQ accepted only 14% of runs. If you only run with the mind set of getting into a GDQ, you'll never be satisfied. I didn't get into my first GDQ I submitted to, the first I attended or this upcoming AGDQ. But I have a lot of fun with speedrunning, so I'll keep speedrunning and not care about the rejections too much. Try to keep up with smaller marathons than GDQs also: they are more often, still a ton of fun and a great way to learn about a lot of other runners. AND PRACTICE. Don't spread yourself too thin over too many games if you don't have time to practice.