If it's any consolation, I don't even train those, just pushups, so your tricep meat probably mogs mine.
Strength ebbs and flows, and the higher your peaks, probably the easier it goes away if you have a protein or calorie shortage. My guess is that you cut back since you weren't training legs and didn't want to gain fat.
It's apparently easier to get back strength than to build it in the first place though (your sarcoplasm can re-inflate, your previous muscle already did the painful process of having stretched out all your facia) so it will be an easier road ahead.
I remember one yoga manual, the teacher said sometimes he would stop stretching for months to lose his flexibility and let his muscles get tight so that he could re-familiarize himself of the difficulties early students face when approaching exercises to start with.