Squad Swimming and Training Load

How many times a week do you swim with them?  I doubt extra swimming would have any negative effects as it is low impact and unlikely to lead to an injury.  Especially since you would already be accustomed to that amount of swimming.  I suspect the plans are geared more towards someone with a weaker swimming background.

i was in a similar situation with my training plan.  i choose to continue swimming with my masters team and not worry about what was on my training plan for the swim.  i enjoy getting in 4-6 hours of swimming per week if i can to stay strong in the water.  i would say its your judgment call for what you feel comfortable with.

some weeks when my biking and running were building up i eased a bit off the swim and then would bring my time/distance on the swim back up the next week so that i didn't get so fatigued or overwhelmed.

It's only an issue if the swimming volume interferes with making time for the bike and run.  Nothing wrong with being more prepared in a discipline than the training plan allows for (that's actually an issue with cookie-cutter training plans, IMO).

I guess the only other caveat would be not falling into the common pattern of favoring your strongest discipline and not buckling down to focus on your limiter(s).  But if you can balance the swimming with the other training, that shouldn't be an issue.