So my ‘A’ race is sunday, and I have been trying to taper to the best of my limited knowledge, by doing ‘easy’ workouts. The problem is that I find myself going longer on the run, almost as hard on the bike, and losing form on the swim.
I come from a practice like you play, or you will play like you practice mentality. So it is hard to go easy, I feel like I am not working.
Does anybody else have this problem?
A proper tapers includes reducing volume by a significant % over your normal volume. Where most people make a mistake is they also reduce intensity and frequency. It’s better to do many short rides/swims/runs with some race pace or slightly above efforts than just go swim ride and run easy.
Hence the reason you may be feeling like your losing fitness is b/c it sounds as if you have eliminated intensity from your taper.
Stick to the reduced volume plan but add in intensity.
I come from a practice like you play, or you will play like you practice mentality. So it is hard to go easy, I feel like I am not working.
This ain’t football, and even if it was, football players are smart enough to get whatever rest they can between plays and they take Mondays off after games 
You’re not “practicing”, you’re training which means you need an attitude shift at this point. Rest is required to ripen the fruit of your training. If you aren’t willing to rest, its a waste of time to train hard. So just keep telling yourself that the “work” of resting is very important. Take joy in every mile you can keep yourself from running or riding during the taper. Your work is on the couch, not the road.
Have to agree with the “lower volume, keep intensity” thinking. That is what I have learned and seems to have worked for me.
It’s better to do many short rides/swims/runs with some race pace or slightly above efforts than just go swim ride and run easy.
Hence the reason you may be feeling like your losing fitness is b/c it sounds as if you have eliminated intensity from your taper.
“Race pace or slightly above” is a key point, because some people add too much intensity with reduced volume during a taper. I’ve seen plenty of distance runners fry themselves for championship races/meets by cutting their mileage in the final weeks and running (racing) a bunch of flying 200s-400s when most previous training had been done at 10k pace and above.