Max Effort, Min Result

Last Saturday we had the second Maximum Effort Day, to follow up on our max effort in May and see how much we'd improved. The two max effort exercises were the deadlift (max weight) and dips (max number of reps). In May, I lifted 110 kilos and did 14 dips. I was hoping last weekend, after a little bit of extra deadlift training (but much more general-fitness stuff that we always do) to be able to lift 120. The problem was that I was at the gym the night before and the workout was extremely strenuous and leg-intensive, with high reps of a kettlebell complex (sort of a unique form of clean-and-squat) and running. So on Max Effort day the next morning, I could not even lift my previous max and only lifted 100 kilos. I was disappointed. I should have stayed home on Friday night. But in the past every time I've tried for a new max I've gotten it, so I foolishly took that for granted. I managed 16 dips this time instead of 14. I don't recall any special emphasis on dips training since the May max effort day. The dilemma of CrossFit is that it's designed to develop general fitness and is pointedly not designed to specialize. So if all of a sudden we want to focus on improving our deadlift, it's hard to do when the whole orientation is to generalize.